April Showers, May Flowers & All That Jazz
By Chris Petry
Well, we’ve officially reached the month of April and you know what that means. Yes, it’s time to don a blue pinstriped suit and umbrella like Gene Kelley in “Singing in the Rain” and wrap yourself around a light post. If 1950s musical references are lost on you, let’s just say we’re in for a lot of rain. Probably. Or, maybe not? Despite the old adage that “April showers bring May flowers,” the rainiest month, on average in Northeastern, Ohio is actually June.
So why do we associate April with rain? Why is there a rhyme about it? Probably because it’s the first full month of spring. The jet stream moves north and the climatic shift that leads into summer truly begins. We also know that flowers, or any vegetation for that matter, require both sun and water to bud and prosper. Those things increase in the month of April.
Being the first month of spring means April does a lot of heavy lifting. Since the days of antiquity, it’s been viewed as a clean slate. A rebirth. The turning point in the year when all is thawed and Mother Nature comes roaring back to life. On early Roman calendars, April had the distinction of being the second month of the entire year. A festival called Veneralia was held on the first day of the month, a tribute to the Goddess Venus. Venus’s Greek equivalent was, of course, Aphrodite and it’s likely the name of the month itself is a derivative of her name.
So far, this year, April is definitely living up to its name. I’m not referring to its etymological origins in Greek mythology but its perception of being rather… shall we say, wet? Has there been a single day thus far where it hasn’t rained? Has there been a single day thus far where someone hasn’t complained about said rain? Listen people, even if we don’t like it, to refer back to that old rhyme about those “showers bringing flowers,” it is necessary. Renowned poet William Blake’s pre-lude to Milton leads with the line, “And did those feet in ancient times, walk upon England’s mountains green.” How do you think those mountains got so green? Rain! Lots of it. Great Britain sees, on average 800-1,400 millimeters of precipitation in a given year. Northeastern, OH might see just over 1,000. You know what that means, we’re almost as rainy as Great Britain! Okay, not quite but still. That’s a lot of rain.
The best news is you likely won’t have to wait until May 1st to see the results of our above-average rainfall. A quick Google search shows that daffodils, azaleas, crocuses, tulips and irises all begin blooming within the month of April. Warmer times are closer than you think. So, let’s not fret the climactic tumult that plagues this, the final month of the cold season. Let’s not curse the raindrops as they fall on our heads and possibly flood our basements. Let’s embrace the powerful and rejuvenating force that is the rain proper. Besides, in a few months when triple digit temperatures force us to retreat to our air-conditioned abodes as we ponder the miserable state of our lawns, we’ll be screaming for it.
