Many people look forward to a fine summer, but interest in the prospects for summer 2002 was heightened when the Met Office introduced a new long range forecast on its website.

The controversial forecast

The forecast itself was relatively mundane.

It was expected to be wetter than average and warmer than average on the western side of the United Kingdom.

For reasons best known to themselves, some local newspapers chose to interpret that forecast in a rather bizarre way.

Headlines screamed of a summer washout with tropical storms battering the region and the tourist industry suffering another body blow.

The first two weeks of June were exceptionally wet and quite cool across the county. More than 24 millimetres fell on the 5th alone.

But summer is, thankfully, more than two weeks long, and the second half of the month saw the rain clearing and the temperatures recovering, although there was precious little in the way of sunshine.

Wettest July since 1993

The start of July did not bode well for the rest of the month. The 1st was one of the coldest July day since 1978.

Warmer and sunnier weather returned around the middle of the month with 28 degrees Celsius being recorded in the county on the 15th.

But it still turned out to be the wettest July since 1992 and the coolest since 1993.

August’s weather was unsettled up until the Friday of the International Balloon Fiesta but then we enjoyed more than 20 days of virtually dry, bright weather.

So considering the summer as a whole, it did turn out to be close to the Met Office’s prediction.

We are now overdue a scorcher!

Richard Angwin - Wiltshire weather is his expertise.