WHAT has happened to the days of knotted handkerchiefs, flip flops and ice creams?

Sunday was officially the first day of summer – but it didn’t feel like that and forecasters today predicted East Lancashire will be covered by clouds all week.

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Experts say residents will also feel colder thanks to unseasonal winds and as Wimbledon starts and campers hit Glastonbury, the county will be hit by the tail-end of tropical storm Bill.

And the next two months is also likely to be a ‘mixed bag’ of weather according to the Met Office, with a North-West/South-East split in the country.

But, despite perceptions, Laura Young, a spokeswoman for the Met Office said the first half of June in Lancashire was statistically drier and sunnier than normal.

Between June 1 and June 15 the county only received 24.5mm of rain and basked in 75 per cent of the total hours sunshine expected for the whole month.

The average temperature was 12C, 1.7C colder than usual, but this was down to cooler nights because of clear skies counterbalancing the warm days.

Ms Young said: “It has been sunnier than average with 125.2 hours of sunshine yet for the whole of June the average number of hours sunshine is 166.4.”

It’s all a far cry from previous Junes, two years ago hospital chiefs were worried that a three-week heatwave was putting “considerable strain” on its urgent care centres.

And last year youngsters were warned about the dangers of cooling off in reservoirs and rivers.

Valerie Jackson, a Ribble Valley Tourism Association assistant at the Visitor Information Centre on Station Road in Clitheroe, said the region has attractions that remain even if it’s drizzling.

She said: “From my experience the weather hasn’t affected footfall.

“Most of our tourists are walkers and they don’t let anything put them off – they just get dressed for the weather.”

Katherine Rodgers, an arts officer at the Platform Gallery, said only people making last-minute plans would be put off. She said: “We have had a few tourists from America and Canada recently and if you come all that way you don’t let it spoil your plans.

“Most foreign travellers are happily surprised by our amazing countryside.

“It’s also handy for lots of other places if it rains.

We are also still getting lots of people coming in for weekly or daily fishing permits.”