CHRISTIAN COMMENT: Just the weather for ducks

TO be fair, at this moment of writing the clouds have only just arrived.

It has been sunny – and the weekend was pretty good, too.

But generally speaking this has been a wet month.

Seriously, continuously, flooding wet. And no, we still can’t use hose-pipes.

So what’s all that about? I’m not sure.

I’m not sure whether we are simply getting back to somewhere near the annual average – which would be nice. Or whether May is meant to be wet anyway.

Gardening books from fifty years ago suggest that May used to be dry with a persistent, chilly east wind. Or what.

The certainty is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to predict anything – and the weather is just a good and ever-present example of that.

Maybe it’s always been like this – unpredictable – but I don’t think so.

I think there have been more clearly defined patterns of weather in this country. Take thunderstorms.

There used to be a fairly predictable pattern that, in summer, an extended period of hot weather would see the average temperature rise and rise until it all blew up into a spectacular thunderstorm.

Torrential rain and ear-splitting cracks of thunder.

The whole thing could roll around for several hours until it faded away.

This would often be followed by a clearing of the skies and a wonderful freshness in the cooled air.

The sun was still hot, though, and the ground would often steam as it dried.

I don’t think that’s nostalgia kicking in.

That was the expectation and would occur a few times each summer.

When was the last time you encountered anything resembling that pattern?

Thunder, yes, but almost randomly as a frontal system moves over.

We just don’t seem to get those build-ups of heat that you need to spark the whole thing off.