THE St Swithin's Day sky above Castle Hill was dark and moody.

There's no heatwave on the horizon - and some experts think we've already had our summer.

The forecast will spell disappointment for families starting the school holidays today and hoping for lots of sunshine-blessed days out.

Better weather is expected, but summer 2004 is highly unlikely to go down in history as a scorcher.

This time last year, Britain basked in blistering temperatures of 33ºC - yesterday the country woke up to murky cloud, drizzle and temperatures 15 degrees lower.

If the St Swithin's Day maxim is anything to go by, it looks set to remain that way all summer.

Under the old adage, if it rains on St Swithin's it will pour for a further 40 days - and in Huddersfield at least, the day got off to a dark, wet, start and rained again later.

Nationally, the rot set in with Wimbledon at the end of June with two days completely washed out.

July has not been much better so far, with barely three days of any sort of sunshine.

Beaches and coastal resorts have been dead, with long stretches of empty sand contrasting sadly with packed sandy shores 12 months ago.

Stripy deck-chairs and sun-bathers have been replaced by huddled figures holding umbrellas.

A PA WeatherCentre spokesman said: "There are some fairly good indications for next week.

"We shouldn't write summer off just yet - there is probably some fairly decent weather ahead of us."