Sunshine and Showers

Thursday 14th April

So often we watch the weather report and they predict sunshine and showers.  Now what does that really mean?  Does it mean a sunny day with the chance of a shower, or a wet day with a few bursts of sunshine between the pretty persistent showers?  And you never really know, because of course the weather forecasters don’t know either, so they uses that term, or ‘patches of rain but brightening up’ or ‘occasional rain’ because although their computers can predict fairly accurately that heavy rain or a dry spell is on its way there are so many local variables that it is almost impossible to tell where and when it might actually rain.  Which is all most of us bothered about.

Here in Eymet everyone is a weather expert, and we are constantly being given the local weather.  Actually it is usually some sort of long term prediction; either – it’ll be really sunny next week, or it’s going to rain all next week.  And just as the BBC they are often wrong.  We have had quite a lot of rain since the New Year with the occasional sunny day.  Sunday just gone though was gloriously warm and sunny all day – until about eight in the evening when we heard the rumble of distant thunder coming closer and closer and then really loud claps of thunder and bright sheet lightning continued for a few hours with torrential rain.  Monday was similarly glorious but in the afternoon we had a really heavy downpour followed by sunshine again.

And in a way you don’t mind, as the mix here seems to be 70 or 80 percent sunshine and then heavy downpours.  In England it is often the other way round, pretty dreek all day and an occasional patch of sunshine in between the almost constant showers.  What a joy it is though when the sun shines here; temperatures get up to the low 20’s and you are suddenly encouraged to wear shorts and sandals, barely heard of attire in the U.K.  So, roll on Summer, even if we have the occasional showers the sunshine here is glorious.