July's unseasonable attitude

You think the weather is bad this month? Well now it's official. Forecasters revealed today that July has had 60 per cent of its average sunshine so far and the first two weeks of the month were the coldest summer period for nearly 50 years.

The temperature at Stansted Airport at midday yesterday was 13C (55F), 10C lower than average and only two degrees warmer than Iceland's capital, Reykjavik.

In fact, July has been so cool that for the first time it has bucked the trend towards global warming as the first month since December 1998 when temperatures have not been above average.

The topsy-turvy climate has hit seasonal food and products, according to retailers. As Londoners shiver, Marks & Spencer is selling more knitwear and coats than it did last July.

At food outlet Souperdouper, which has five branches at London mainline stations, ice-cream sales for June and July are down 50 per cent on the same period last year, while sales of country vegetable soup and chilli con carne are up 40 per cent for the same period.

Managing director Jonathan Orchard said: "It's a crazy situation. We expected to be selling lots of ice-cream but there just hasn't been a call for it. When it's miserable, people seem to prefer something warm and comforting, like soup."

There is good news on the horizon - if you believe the experts. The Meteorological Office and British Weather Services predict that August will be bright and sunny - at least for the first two weeks of the month.

But with the rest of July yet to come, the outlook is mixed. Although today's temperature in London should reach 21C (70F), according to the PA Weather Centre, towards the end of the week we can look forward to increasingly unsettled weather and thundery showers at the weekend, says the Meteorological Office.

Independent forecaster Ian Currie said: "We thought June was bad enough with 10 hours less sunshine than normal and even Newcastle getting more sun than London. Now it's looking like July is going to be even worse."