I don't wish to frighten anyone, but one of the forecasters I follow, who uses past weather cycles a lot for his work, has been tweeting how much this year is like 1976 ![ohmy :ohmy:](https://chat.allotment-garden.org/Smileys/green/ohmy.gif)
Details here for those too young to remember!
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/2016/heat-wave
I'm already making sure that all my water butts stay full, just in case...
I wouldn't put too much emphasis on analog years. Just because the weather conditions are similar so far this year, it doesn't mean it will continue like that. One similar year proves nothing. You really need to look at teleconnections over at least 30 years of data to extract relationships which could be used as prediction tools, and for UK seasons, there is very little skill in seasonal prediction.
Remember we had drought conditions from 2010 to early 2012, followed by one of the wettest summers on record. A year and a half later we had one of the wettest and stormiest winters on record (2013/14), followed by another wet winter in 2014/15. Now we've gone back in to a blocked atmosphere and weak jet stream, hence the lack of rain since last summer.
There is a remote possibility that the reduction in Arctic sea ice is having an effect on the northern hemisphere climate, making blocking setups more likely (possibly due to Arctic amplification effect), and so more frequent periods of prolonged stagnant weather conditions in the UK and elsewhere. If this is the case (and it is by no means certain) we may have to get used to it, and adapt our gardening methods to increase resiliance to prolonged periods of wet and dry (it is probably wise to do this anyway).