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So, that's Summer 2009 over.Ìý At least, in so far as Met Office statistics are concerned.

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Of course, in reality, most of the public - let alone thousands of hoteliers, beachfront café owners, ice cream vendors and others - will be rather hopeful of our 'Summer' continuing to bring spells of warm, settled weather into September.

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For meteorological purposes however, summer spans June, July and August.Ìý And inevitably, it's a period when our weather forecast accuracy comes under considerable scrutiny, with little room for forgiveness when things go badly awry.

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In fairness, this happens rather infrequently. Public perception and media profile of 'bad' forecasts are inevitably outweighed, proportionately, by the far greater number of - but inevitably, these success stories receive little or no publicity. ÌýBad forecasts, after all, make great news.Ìý

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So for forecasters, Summer 2009 hasÌýbeen a season of considerable pressures and expectations. After all, we deserved a good summer in 2009, didn't we?Ìý Especially after the abysmal weather we enduredÌýthrough the drenched summer of 2007 and the record-breakingly dull versionÌýexperienced inÌý2008.Ìý

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And Lo, .

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Or to be more accurate, it was duly reported, with various, ah, 'embellishments'.

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The most cited embellishment of all - Odds-on for a Barbecue Summer - was admittedly the . After some excellent and highly accurate winter forecasting effort throughout the major , 2009 risked becoming an Annus Horribilis for the Met Office by the end of July, as - beneath repeatedly inclement weather that month - the upbeat summer forecast seemed to be falling apart at the seams.

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But rather lost in the media backlash, the reality - statistically speaking - is that we've actually enjoyed a fairly reasonable three months.Ìý Fairly.

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June, let us recall, was regularly glorious and often very warm. Indeed for some regions, , while the new high-tech

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July, however, was the spoiler. As the jet stream snaked southwards, steering Atlantic cyclones towards the British Isles and surpressing any meaningful extension into NW Europe by the , we started to see conditions which had been all-too-familiar the preceding two years - bringing often persistent cloudy, wet and breezy weather.

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Indeed, here in the West Country, July's rainfall for some areas - notably Bristol - gave the highest tally recorded since 1888; a whopping 162.1mm, as noted by local amateur meteorologist Barry Horton whose . Barry also notes, in terms of Bristol's temperature through July 2009, that:

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... this is the 3rd consecutive July when temperatures have been below the 30 year average for the city....0.2°C below the 30 year average of 17.8°C.

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Ìý We're awaiting the final August statistics, but it's not been a dreadful month by any means; albeitÌýas the Polar jet stream continued toÌýsnakeÌýclose at hand, changeable weather has largely dominated. Just last week, the remnants of Ìý- completing it's extra-tropical migration into oblivion across cooler North Atlantic waters - brought us wet, windy but noticeably mild weather across the country.

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Was the summer long range forecast really such a disaster? For the scientists who are , it was arguably was never intended for wider consumption as an 'operational' public forecast.Ìý After all, the - of an "average British summer" -Ìýhad talked merely in bland terms of "less than average" rainfall and "average or warmer-than-average" temperatures.

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The evocative term "Barbeque Summer"Ìýwas a lurking PR banana-skin likely to compromise scientific credibility in the event of things going horribly askew. Consequently - and faced with a changeable August forecast - the by the end of July, with only a month of summer was left to match the media hyperbole and inflated public expectations.

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So, we march on to Autumn and to Winter. AndÌýthe early, indicative seasonal prediction from the Met Office provides an early hint of what to expect, weather-wise, for the coming winter: essentially wet and mild. Read it from the Met Office and you'll find further updates will follow in the coming weeks.

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Certainly an interesting few months lie ahead, not least as we look to the distant waters of the central South Pacific, where an , bringing the potential for some Ìýacross . Many of these are expected to herald distinctly unwelcome, even life-threateningÌýweather across parts of the developing and impoverishedÌýworld, making ourÌýmutteringsÌýover a not-so-barbeque summerÌýseem utterly trivial by comparison.