The UK in June

 

Mike Hulme on last month’s weather

 

 

DAYTIME TEMPERATURES

 

Temperatures were variable during June, both through the month and across the country.  A cool first two weeks were followed by a mini-heatwave from the 17th to 20th.  Daytime temperatures locally reached 32C and on Sunday the 18th the nationwide average temperature reached 23.5C, over 6C above the average.  Although most of Scotland shared this heatwave, temperatures during the rest of the month were disappointing and parts of northern Scotland ended up more than 1C colder than usual for June.  When averaged across the country and through the month, temperatures in June were close to average.

 

 

RAINFALL

 

June was rather dry, particularly over much of England.  Most of southern England received less than 50% of average June rainfall.  Northern England, Northern Ireland and Scotland were wetter, however, with rainfall closer to the monthly norm.  Over 100mm at Morecambe compared with only 14mm at Exmouth.  Most of June's rainfall fell during the first 10 days of the month and there were long dry spells during the remaining three weeks. 

 

 

SUNSHINE

 

Sunshine totals were also slightly below average across most of the UK, although in relative terms the sunniest locations were in Scotland.  Birmingham recorded a disappointing 137 hours of sunshine, while Stornoway received over 170 hours.  The two hottest days of the month - 18th and 19th - were also the two sunniest, both averaging more than 10 hours sunshine across the country.  There have been very few such cloudy months in relative terms over the last 2 years in the UK (see graph).  Despite the weather in June, year 2000 continues to have been mild, wet and sunny relative to the long-term average.

 

 

 

Dr Mike Hulme is a research climatologist at the University of East Anglia

(more details at website at www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~mikeh/)

 

 

 

June 2000: Warm in the south, cool in the north

 

Daytime Temperature: average;          Rainfall:   14% below average;    Sunshine:  10% below average.

 

[all average figures are based on the 1951-80 average]

 

Mean monthly extremes:

 

Warmest      Bristol                                                 20.2°C

Sunniest        Bournemouth                                      214 hours sun

Wettest        Scarborough                                       120mm       

Coldest        Lerwick                                               10.9°C

Cloudiest      Eskdalemuir                                       102 hours sun

Driest           Folkestone                                          14mm