Increasingly extreme weather patterns are causing difficulties on the British high street. Clothing retailers are enjoying a strong start to autumn trading as wet weather and the approach of winter helps to drive sales of coats and knitwear, but the picture was very different over the summer.

Wet, chilly weather in June and July induced clothing retailers to “cancel summer” and discount strappy tops and cotton dresses to clear stock.

One head of a big British clothing retailer told The Times: “The weather has got increasingly extreme. It is very difficult to predict the unpredictable.”

Even Stuart Rose, the chief executive of Marks & Spencer, who famously said that “weather is for wimps”, was forced to admit that the summer downpours had hit sales.

Mr Rose and his peers have done much to combat the difficulties of predicting British weather.

High-tech systems that predict weather patterns weeks or months in advance are commonly used to help to plan ahead, while retailers buy their goods much closer to the selling season.

Some years ago clothing stores would buy their winter knitwear as much as a year in advance. Now stores can deliver clothes to the shop floor only three weeks after design, helping them to predict and satisfy demand more accurately.

Stores also ask manufacturers to hold back fabrics until it is clear which shapes – long trousers or shorts, for example – are proving to be the most popular. The top sellers can then be reordered swiftly.

Retailers also sell more “transitional” ranges - clothes that can be worn in most weathers – rather than heavy knitwear, for example, which will remain on the shelves until there is a cold snap.

But coping with the weather is also about retail skill and nous.

“If you have gauged the fashions correctly, the merchandise will sell,” the head of one big retailer suggested. “It will go cold or warm at some point.”

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