This summer hasn't been bad thanks to the decent August, nothing that good but like 1998 it was saved in August although I'd still rate 1998 slightly higher than 2012.
Personally I found that round here 2009 was the best of the modern summers, and ranking quite decent, with warm/hot spells during June, plenty of storms/humidity in July and and an o.k August.
I'd now rate this summer round here ahead of 2007 and 2011, but about on par with 2008 and 2010 and behind 2009, although the cool summers are getting tedious, it was nice to finally see a pretty good august after 3 years, so by recent standards this summer was o.k.