The rains return, but too late to repair our parched land | Comment

Finally some rain: not enough to end the drought gripping most regions of the UK, but still I’ll take it. An overnight shower watered my garden, washed the dirty asphalt, created puddles for animals to drink from, and should soon turn the crisp blonde grass green again.

Until Tuesday there had been no meaningful rain in my part of Suffolk since June 17th when 1.2cm fell. In June, July and August we had only 2.7 cm instead of the 16.7 cm an average year would bring; once in a while, during these months, the weather forecast would predict a shower, but each time the probability dropped as the hour approached and all we got was a few minutes of moist descending air that barely darkened