By Philip Eden

June divided neatly into two parts, meteorologically speaking. The first half of the month was very warm, but although England and Wales were also dry and sunny, Scotland and Northern Ireland were changeable. The second half was cool and unsettled throughout the UK.

The drop in temperature after mid-month failed to counterbalance the warmth of the first fortnight: the first half of the month was actually 3.0 degC warmer than average whereas the second half was 1.0 degC cooler than average. The Central England Temperature (which includes both daytime and night-time temperatures) for the whole of June was 15.4C which is 1.0 degC above the average for the reference period 1971-2000. By this measure it was substantially cooler than last June, but there were only six warmer Junes in the last fifty years – 1960, 1970, 1976, 1982, 1992, and 2003.

There were some outstandingly warm days during the second week, particularly the 7th, 8th and 14th when many places reached the mid to high eighties. The highest official reading at a standard site was 31.2C at Gravesend, Kent, on the 8th, but an unofficial 32.3C was logged at Kensington in west London. The coldest weather arrived abruptly just after mid-month, and on the 19th the mercury slumped to minus 0.2C at Shap in Cumbria early in the morning, and climbed no higher than 7.3C at Loch Glascarnoch in Wester Ross the following afternoon.

England and Wales rainfall totalled 63.5mm, just seven per cent below normal, but nearly all of this fell in the last ten days. At Weymouth there was no measurable rain from the 2nd to the 21st inclusive. Scotland and Northern Ireland, by contrast, had rain at frequent intervals throughout the month, and the Scottish total of 93.1mm was 66 per cent above average. Wettest area was around Elgin and Forres in Morayshire: at RAF Kinloss the month’s rainfall was 156.6mm, more than three times the normal amount, and the highest in this particular district in June since 1872!

Sunshine duration was two per cent above average in England and Wales, 12 per cent below in Northern Ireland, and 21 per cent below in Scotland. Bournemouth’s 295 hours made this its sunniest June since 1996; by contrast Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis and Kirkwall in Orkney experienced their dullest June since 1984 with 88 hours and 80 hours respectively.

(c) Philip Eden