But even hardy Brits have been left bemused by an official drought that remains in place despite nearly a month of torrential rain.
“It’s been an excellent example of just how variable spring is in the UK,” said a spokesman for the Met Office, the national weather forecasting service. A meandering north Atlantic jet stream is largely responsible for the contrast between a sandals-and-shorts March and April’s deluge, the Met says.
April is shaping up to be one of the wettest of the last century, but that’s not enough to make up for an exceptionally dry winter that has left the water table and reservoirs depleted, says the Environment Agency.
Water is less easily absorbed in the dry soil, it explains, so flash floods are more likely - even as householders face fines for using hosepipes to water their gardens.
“Although we have had really heavy rainfall this month, that will not be enough to make up for two very dry winters in a row,” Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman told parliament on Thursday.
“I could be deluded into thinking that I had the power to make it rain on the basis of this week,” she joked.
Raised eyebrows and wry humor has been the reaction to the schizophrenic weather in many quarters.
A cartoon on the front page of Friday’s Daily Telegraph newspaper showed a man in a boat asking a couple astride the roof of their flooded house: ‘Would you like a leaflet on conserving water?’
There has been widespread hilarity in London, where utility Thames Water has been running a water conservation campaign on double decker buses. “WE ARE IN DROUGHT,” reads the slogan emblazoned on the side of the buses, to the bemusement of pedestrians clutching umbrellas in the pouring rain.
Athletes around the world will be joining Brits in hoping that the soggy weather will dry out before the Olympics in July and August.
The cool, damp climate is likely to deny sprinter Usain Bolt the opportunity to break his 100 meters world record in London, Bolt’s coach said on Thursday.
Perhaps wisely, the Met Office refrains from predicting that far ahead, though US forecaster Weather Services International sees a relatively dry, warm summer for the UK.
But in the short-term - with more heavy rain and even tornadoes likely to afflict the country well into May - Brits look to have plenty of conversation fodder ahead.
