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Weathermen raise hopes for a warm summer

Staff
Thursday 30 April 2009 14:27 BST
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( REUTERS/Kieran Doherty)

Who needs foreign trips? Forecasters say the UK is likely to enjoy warmer than average temperatures this summer.

The Chief Meteorologist at the Met Office, Ewen McCallum, said: "After two disappointingly-wet summers, the signs are much more promising this year. We can expect times when temperatures will be above 30 °C, something we hardly saw at all last year."

He said prolonged spells of warm weather were likely. He warned that while there was a two in three chance the forecast would be right, that meant there was a one in three chance it would be wrong.

Although the forecast is for a drier and warmer summer than average that does not mean that we will not get some heavy downpours at times, say long-range forecasters. However, a repeat of the wet summers of 2007 and 2008 is unlikely.

They even say we can look forward to a 'barbecue summer'.

The Government Services Director, Rob Varley, stressed: "Our long-range forecasts are proving useful to a range of people, such as emergency planners and the water industry, in order to help them plan ahead. They are not forecasts which can be used to plan a summer holiday or inform an outdoor event."

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