jchthys:I don't know if I like the conditional. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the conditional used for conditions?

Well technically there is some conditional-ness in this sentence (forgive the horrible case of English).

"It was August, and it shouldn't have been raining."
I wasn't meant to rain (which is being pointed out) but on an unknown condition it is. ok that's a bad explanation, but anyway.

Let's imagine that this is now set in Melbourne, Australia (because it would definitely be raining there in August), and that it's completely in present tense, then how would you translate
"It's August, and it should be raining."? You would use the conditional, because what's really being said is "It's August, and it should be raining, if this is a normal occasion."

Now if we go back up to the Northern Hemisphere:
"It's August, and it shouldn't be raining." The conditional element doesn't change.

That's the way I see it anyway.

And, like Miland said, there's the whole problem with devi, which didn't occur to me at first, and I'd have to say that his translation is the simplest.

But, damn, I love the English language but translating is so hard...

tommjames:I'd shift the "ne" to after "devintus" rather than before it, in line with what Rohan pointed out from the PMEG.

Yes, I'm persuaded by the analogy from PMEG's logic and have revised my translation. It does say that Zamenhof didn't make much of a distinction here, but it could be useful for devi. Possibly less vital for 'should'.

tommjames:Anybody want to have a go translating this to Esperanto?:

"It was August, and it shouldn't have been raining."

To me, this sounds like a line one would use to begin a story or some sort of narrative and would imply the meaning:

"It was August, and it shouldn't have been raining." (but nonetheless, it was raining)

In that case you could convey the meaning with words such as:

"Estis aŭgusto, kaj tie ĉi, preskaŭ neniam pluvas en aŭgusto. Sed hodiaŭ pluvis tre forte."

This is not really a literal translation, just a thought on how to express the idea. There are many good translations already on this thread. The many different ways of expressing the idea shows what a versatile language Esperanto is!

"Estis aŭgusto, kaj pluvo ne taŭgis" is another approach.