Climatologists were, around the middle of last month, scouring their record books to see if we were in line for one of the coldest Junes on record. Not quite, although it had been the coldest first half for ten years. However, the warmth of the last fortnight was such that June as a whole ranked seventh warmest in the last 100 years. In recent times only those of 2003 and 1992 had been warmer.

Mean monthly maximum temperature ranged from 12.1C at Fair Isle to 22.7C at Heathrow airport, while mean minima varied between 7.8C at Shap in Cumbria and 13.4C at St Helier on Jersey. In all parts of the country the warm second half more than outweighed the cool first half, and monthly temperatures were typically between 1 and 2 degC above the long-term average. The Central England Temperature, which takes into account both daytime and overnight readings, was 15.7C, and this was 1.6 degC above the average for the standard reference period 1971-2000.

There were many noteworthy individual temperatures. The 19th was the hottest June day since 1976 at many places in eastern England; the highest official reading under standard conditions was 32.6C at Heathrow, although an unofficial but reliable 34.4C was recorded in West Kensington. The following night set new records for June in East Anglia and the Southeast, the temperature remaining above 20C all night in inner London. The early part of the month had brought several widespread ground frosts and one or two local air frosts, the lowest reading being minus 1.4C at Altnaharra in Sutherland on the morning of the 6th.

Thanks to some heavy thundery downpours during the last week, June�s rainfall was above the long-term average in Scotland, eastern England and the Midlands, but there was a marked shortfall in southern England, extending the long dry period here to eight months. Driest of all last month were the Maidstone and Tonbridge districts in Kent where only 6mm of rain fell � barely one-eighth of the normal amount.

Sunshine duration was close to normal over England and Wales, but rather below in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Monthly aggregates ranged from 282 hours at St Helier, Jersey, to just 101 hours at Stornoway in the Western Isles.

© Philip Eden