15th July 2010: The next 40 days to rain in the UK? Why?

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The sodden reputation of St Swithin has an odds-on chance of surviving this year, and unusually he is also in line for votive offerings of thanks. After dawn on his saint's day this morning was marked by rainfall across the UK, forecasters said that the country may face the 40 wet days that are traditionally supposed to follow. The Meteorological Office recorded 25-30mm of rain overnight, followed by showers tracking north across the country to Scotland, which has been under rainclouds for several days. Charles Powell, a forecaster, said high winds were likely to add to the cooler weather tomorrow, with gusts of up to 60mph in the south-west. Instead of gloom, the rain was greeted with relief in the north-west, which has entered the second week of a hosepipe ban after the driest first half of the year since the 1920s. Downpours that caused flash flooding in Yorkshire were also an answer to prayers for narrowboat hire firms on the 127-mile Leeds-Liverpool canal, which faces closure of the middle 60-mile Pennine section unless rain refills reservoirs by the end of the month. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jul/15/st-swithins-day-wet Jul 15 10, 7:06 PM