John Richard

In the week that the Met Office revised its prediction of a "barbecue summer", find out how July 2009 compares with summers past.

There's no doubt July has been a washout, made more miserable by memories of last month's heatwave - if you live anywhere but the far north, that is.

The regional breakdown of July's weather (above) shows England, the South West and south Wales suffered the most, with above-average rainfall and below-average sunshine.

The only area to show (very slight) above-average sunshine was northern Scotland.

That's because the depression that caused the unsettled weather missed those in the Shetlands and Orkneys, who must be wondering what all the fuss is about.

The UK as a whole experienced a damp July.

The month's average rainfall was 121.3mm (until 27 July) - far above the average of 69.6mm.

Still, it's not the wettest July in the UK.

That record belongs to the year 1988, when 145.3mm of rain fell. And remember the floods of 2007 Two years ago, England and Wales suffered their wettest July on record with a rainfall of 136mm.

While rain has been coming down by the bucket-load, sunshine has been hard to come by.

The average amount of monthly sunshine for July is 174.3 hours and this year to date (27 July) we've had 149.5 hours. The sunniest July was back in 1955 with 256 hours.

While rain has been plentiful and sunshine scarce this month, the Met Office says temperatures up until 29 July have been slightly above average, with the far north doing better than other areas.

Only Wales had a slightly below-average maximum temperature - 18.3C compared with the average 19.1C.

Scotland show the best warmer-than-average maximum of 17.7C compared with its July average maximum of 16.9C.

And the outlook for August The Met Office predicts an "unsettled" start of the month and "near normal" temperatures, but is cautiously optimistic about a sunnier, drier late August.

Mean maximum July temperatures, 2001-2008