Climate change may be to blame for our dismally wet summer

So far, the summer season of 2012 is shaping up in pretty much the same fashion as it has in four out of the five preceding summers; as a damp squib.

Look at the statistics: the sodden summer of 2007 ended up with the dubious distinction of being the wettest since 1957; 2008 fared scarcely much better with overall rainfall twice the average in many meteorological stations and the wettest August on record recorded in most.

2009 flattered to deceive. After opening with the warmest, sunniest June for almost 40 years, it then nosedived for the rest of the summer and the season was again much wetter than average. 2010 recorded an average summer overall whilst last year — after early fantastical forecasts of a “barbecue summer” to rival the legendary summer of 1976 — ended up being more akin to abysmal 1986, and the coldest summer for between 25 and 49 years, depending on the meteorological station.