People once relied on folk wisdom to make sense of the weather. Without a Met Office supercomputer or masses of data on which to base forecasts, phrases like ‘April showers’ helped them know what to expect at a certain time of year.

We asked Rob Thompson, a rainfall scientist at the University of Reading (and a man with access to those supercomputers), if April showers are really a thing. And it turns out they are: April, in the UK at least, has the lowest rainfall per rainy day of any month. This really is the time of year for frequent showers with fewer of the big downpours you might get in summer or winter.

Thompson explains why April weather can be sunny one minute then rainy the next, and looks at how climate breakdown will affect the April shower.

If you’re using preventative flea treatments on your pets, you may be washing harmful chemicals into our rivers in the process. An investigation found that chemicals applied to dogs and cats get washed and stroked off, ending up in water supplies.

And recent events weren’t the first time the British royal family was at the centre of a conspiracy-laden media storm. A historian looks at some of the wild theorising prompted by George III’s “madness” in the 1700s.

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