Here comes the summer (at last): 24C spell forecast

IT’S time to dig out the barbecues again as balmy 24C sunshine is predicted for the country next week — 11C above normal for the time of year and almost matching 2011’s top temperature.

Forecasters dubbed the hot snap an Indian summer — although an Indian summer is actually a more sustained period of above-average temperatures in October or November.

The sunshine should cheer people up following the coldest summer since 1986 in some parts of the country, last week’s battering by the remnants of Hurricane Katia and forecasts for early winter snow.