The Meteorologists don't seem to get forecasts right, so we turned to the people and asked what their instinct is for this summer's weather. The answer is not very hopeful...
Despite some weathermen's predictions of a barbecue summer, the summer of 2012 was one of the coldest, and wettest, on record, with a mean temperature of 13.9 degrees and an average of 370mm of rainfall across the country. Surely this coming summer will do better than that? Britons aren't so sure.
Nearly half (47%) forecast the summer of 2013 to be “about the same” as 2012, while 26% feel it is going to be better and 14% think it may be even worse.
On this issue, men are more optimistic than women - nearly a third of men (31%) predict summer 2013 to be “better” than last year’s while just 22% of women say the same.
A slim majority (53%) of the total population say they pay attention to long term weather forecasts. Despite years of experience, it is still older people who pay the most attention to long term weather forecasts (60%) compared to a minority of 18-24 year olds (43%).
Sir Mick Jagger, on headlining Glastonbury Festival with the Rolling Stones this year, says the idea of playing in torrential rain is “awful”, but in keeping with the national prediction he is wisely realistic: "is it going to be rainy on the Sunday? Isn't it nearly always rainy on the Sunday?”
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