In a way surprisingly, weather is not hot (2,2,4)
I believe the answer is:
as it were
'in a way' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'surprisingly weather is not hot' is the wordplay.
'surprisingly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'not' suggests deleting specific letters.
'hot' becomes 'h' (abbreviation eg on taps).
'weather'+'is'='weatheris'
'weatheris' with 'h' removed is 'weateris'.
'weateris' is an anagram of 'AS IT WERE'.
(Other definitions for as it were that I've seen before include "So to speak" , "Just like if really so" , "Seemingly" , "you may say" , "In a kind of way" .)