The weather is our favourite topic of conversation, though normally it’s just the minutiae we dwell on – “isn’t it cold?”, “mild isn’t it for this time of year?” and “coldest summer in years” we mutter.

But today it might just be worth a little more than polite observation, since the weather, or lack of it, looks likely to hurt us where it hurts most – in the bathroom, kitchen and garden.

It may have felt like a typically grim, cold new year, but the reality has been somewhat different.

Yes there’s been snow and gales, but bizarrely little rain. If any in fact.

So critical has the lack of rain become that the county may well see hosepipe bans introduced again later in the year.

The county needs rainfall 120 per cent above the annual average in the next month to guarantee the status quo.

Frankly, that looks as likely as the sun shining in summer.

So for the sake of all of us, let’s be a little more careful – brush our teeth without leaving the tap running, try showers instead of baths, and leave those hosepipes and sprinklers in the shed.

True, it’s unlikely home taps will run dry, but as a certain supermarket is so keen to remind us, every little helps...