# April Showers.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-showers/782693>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 21, 2017, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-showers/782693 "2017-03-21T16:05:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-showers/782693/21 "2017-03-23T13:32:35Z")

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> [@Colibri](#):
>
> Per Wiki, it’s [because the path of the jet stream changes over the British Isles at that time.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_shower)
> 
> However, [average monthly rainfall in London](http://www.holiday-weather.com/london/averages/) does not go up that much in April. May is rainier.
> 
> The rhyme may not apply elsewhere. For example,[in New York April is less rainy than March or May.](http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate.php?location=USNY0996)

It’s not so much the AMOUNT of rain as the TYPE of rain. April tends to have a a lot of convective showers, because there is often low pressure (due to the jet stream movement you mention) and the sun is strong enough to trigger shower cloud formation.

So, rather than the drizzle of winter, you tend to get sunny intervals interrupted by sudden downpours.

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-showers/782693/22 "2017-03-23T14:11:12Z")

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> [@markn\_1](#):
>
> Oh come on. You’re not going to try to tell me that there wasn’t any old woman who lived in a shoe, are you?

No, but there [_was_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning) a she who sold seashells by the seashore.

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**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-showers/782693/23 "2017-03-23T14:21:18Z")

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By March, our continuous heavy Winter rains have usually given over to our continuous heavy Spring rains …

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**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2017, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/april-showers/782693/24 "2017-03-23T16:30:37Z")

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> [@DSYoungEsq](#):
>
> If April showers bring may flowers, what do may flowers bring?

If winter comes, can spring be far behind?

There are lots and lots of folklore sayings about weather, I would imagine in most cultures, and they must just have seemed generally true a lot of the time; so, in England, “February Fill-Dyke” and “March - in like a lion and out like a lamb”. But they must also be fairly dependent on place, and not necessarily translatable to the places where the people who grew up with such sayings emigrated to.

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