The first Test match of the season begins today at Lord’s and, of course, showers of rain are expected. The match between England and New Zealand is guaranteed to be frustrating, with little prospect of play in the morning as the rains crash down with anything up to 50mm (2in) possible. The showers could well linger on into the afternoon before there is much prospect of the ground covers coming off. But at least the new faster-draining outfield at Lord’s installed a few years ago will help to get rid of surface waters.

The deluge also will be experienced across much of central and southern England and East Anglia. The rains are coming up over the English Channel from France on a slow-moving weather front. Because it is moving slowly, or even stalling, the front will have plenty of time to shower down, and there may be some localised flooding.

All of which may give an uneasy sense of déjà vu of something uncannily like last summer’s appalling downpours that led to severe flooding. In fact, it was in early May 2007 that the hot, dry spring weather broke and the rains started to fall, and carried on falling for much of the summer. However, no one is suggesting that today’s rains are the start of another wet and thoroughly miserable summer.