The start of Wimbledon today signals another nerve-racking fortnight of weather watching. The outlook for the UK is for plenty of sunshine and showers, but will Wimbledon dodge the downpours, or are the rain covers going to be brought out with regular monotony? All we can say is that southeast England should escape the worst of the rain.

Of course, rain has been a key player throughout the history of Wimbledon. When the championship moved to its current grounds at Church Road, in 1922, play was interrupted every day of the fortnight. Only the Centre Court had tarpaulins to keep the rain off, so all the other courts turned into quagmires. By the second week there was such a backlog of matches that the tournament was extended into a third week, and finished only on Wednesday July 12. Even today, this ranks as the most disrupted tournament in Wimbledon’s history.

But Wimbledon is not all dark clouds and showers. On July 1, 1968, a record 550 spectators needed treatment for heat exhaustion and dehydration in searing temperatures delivered by hot air from the Sahara. And in the famous heatwave of 1976 the temperature hit 31C (88F) every day of the tournament.