h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There's an old joke - I love Irish summer; it's my favourite day of the year.

Now that summer is officially over, the weathermen have given their report. Summer 2012 was the worst since 1986. In particular, Cork experienced its worst summer since records began in 1962.

It was certainly the wettest I can remember. 1986's records were skewed by one day when a tropical storm hit Ireland. But this summer was just rotten throughout. We didn't really get to sit out any time, except when I went down to Wexford where the weather is always sunnier. I only lit the barbecue once and got soaked to the skin on a number of occasions walking to and from work.

On the other hand, the weekend just gone, the first of Autumn, was probably the best of the year so far, with temperatures on Saturday getting as high as 25 degrees!

I've just ordered some wellies in preparation of a soggy winter

Nah, winter's the dry season. Summer's when you need wellies.

I can't complain - it rained less than I expected while we were there. The days in Dublin were quite dry and even a bit sunny.

Sunday was lovely - we took our 2 dogs down to visit AyeBee in Donabate. Our dog Mini got to meet her mum, Thandi, and brother Henry, and they all romped happily in a sunny field.

"Cork experienced its worst summer since records began in 1962."

Good job it floats...

B

In Stockholm, we've had so much rain you've got to go all the way back to 1960 to find anything worse.

And lots of lightnings, with the current record on June 6th: 12,224

Number of tropical nights (when the average 24-hour-temperature stays above +20ºC): zero

The finale for July, this year, in the Coachella Valley was the most torrential July rain storm in history. Still very hot. The monsoonal flow coming off the tropical Gulf of California didn't even slightly cool things down.

Otherwise, the summer was very hot and exceptionally humid. Wet ball of 5 every day.