Speculation that this could be one of the wettest winters on record could prove to be wide of the mark.
National media outlets claimed that the UK would be hit by stormy conditions over the next few months.
The Met Office has described reports as a “misunderstanding” of its three-month contingency planning outlook.
A post on its blog stated: “First of all, last winter was the wettest in our digital records dating back to 1910, so if we were to have a wetter winter than that, it would be the wettest in over a century not just for 30 years.
“But that’s not what our contingency planners outlook says.
“As we’ve pointed out here many times in the past, this product isn’t like our short range forecasts it doesn’t tell you definitively what the weather is going to be and that’s why it’s not really that useful for the public.
“What it does do is make an assessment of the likelihood of seeing wetter or drier than average and milder or colder than average conditions for the whole of the UK for the whole three-month period.”
Although recent outlooks signalling an increased risk of milder and wetter conditions have proven to be accurate, experts from the Met Office urged caution over its latest three-month report, warning that it does not provide specific details or give any indication that any records will be broken.