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North Devon's Bill Tanton has become something of a legend in the world of amateur weather forecasting.

Since 1968, Bill has been providing quarterly long-range forecasts for South West England using traditional methods to predict the weather for the coming season. He claims his forecasts have had an 80% success rate over the years.

As far as Bill's forecasts are concerned, each season starts on a particular day of the year.

The 25 March is the advent of Spring, mid-year day on 21 June dictates the summer weather, 29 September heralds the start of Autumn and 25 December marks the start of winter.

Colourful autumn leaves

Autumn 2008 forecast:

Forecast听period: 29 September 2008 to 25 December

Bill Tanton predicts "a very acceptable autumn," with below average rainfall, above average sunshine and higher than average temperatures for this time of year.

You can listen to Bill's forecast using the audio link on this page.