This year the 15^th of July – also known as St. Swithun's Day - was one of the rainiest days of the year.

It is said that if it rains on St. Swithun's day- for 40 days it will remain. So what can we expect for the rest of the summer?

After being lulled into a false sense of security by the lovely weather back in April, the good old British Summer weather has returned with a vengeance. There has been rain, storms and flooding in many parts of the UK and unfortunately it looks as though the weather will persist through July and August – and even into September.

Experts are telling us all simply to forget about summer as the forecast for the next couple of months is “terrible”. They have said that it is hard to find a day that there will not be rain somewhere, and whittled down the summer months to a single day – Sunday July 15^th – the day they claimed was the least likely to rain!!

Interestingly, that day was also Saint Swithun's Day.

Saint Swithun was an early bishop of Winchester, whose name now lives on in the popular British weather-lore proverb:

“St Swithun's day if thou dost rain

For forty days it will remain

St Swithun's day if thou be fair

For forty days 'twill rain na mair”

So where did this weather related legend come from?

Unusually for the times, Swithun was buried outdoors rather than inside his cathedral – at his own request - in order for the “sweet rain of heaven” to fall upon his grave. It was decided in 971 CE to move his body to a new indoor shrine. The ceremony was delayed by 40 days of torrential rain which was said to be a sign of him being angered by the move. Today, the tradition says that if it rains on St Swithun's day- the rain will remain for 40 days.

And our British weather being true to form – the 15^th of July was one of the rainiest days of the year.

So- do we need to forget about summer?

Research from the Met Office suggests that the wet weather is the result of cooler sea temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. This is a result of the La Nina weather system, sister to El Nino. The temperatures have been lower than normal across the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, probably secondary to the ice caps melting, and this has important effects on the weather and in particular on rainfall.

The effect of La Niña is that those parts of the world that normally experience dry weather are drier and those with wet weather are wetter.

So if the legend of Saint Swithun is true, we can only assume the UK, renowned worldwide for its wet weather, will continue to have its share of floods this summer!

Want to know more?

Read MyHealthPortal's review of the special environmental report published by the department of health.