The UK in June
Mike Hulme on last month’s weather
DAYTIME TEMPERATURES
June temperatures were quite
different from north to south, and from the beginning of the month to the
end. For southern England and south
Wales it was a warm month, Guernsey and Folkestone reaching more than 1C warmer
than average. For the northern
two-thirds of the country, however, daytime temperatures were mostly cooler
than normal for June, more so in the northwest than in the northeast. Eskdalemuir, for example, was 2C colder than
average. The first two weeks of June
were also cool, the period 7-9th achieving temperatures nationwide
that were as much as 3.5C below the seasonal norm. Temperatures rose during the last 10 days of the month and the
hottest day was Monday 25th, coinciding with the start of the
Wimbledon fortnight.
RAINFALL
The north-south difference
in temperatures was partly reflected in rainfall amounts, with the north wetter
than the south. There were exceptions,
however, and localised storms meant that some southern locations exceeded their
June average. Lowestoft, for example,
recorded 68mm of rain for the month, 70 per cent above normal. In contrast, Bournemouth only recorded 3mm
in the entire month. Further north
there was more rain, although for most of Scotland it was still a drier month
than usual, by about 10-20%. Again,
there were some large localised differences.
The wettest day of the month for the country as a whole was Saturday 16th
with a nationwide average of about 5mm.
SUNSHINE
The north-south contrast was
also evident in sunshine hours – parts of southern England enjoyed sunshine
totals during June that were 20 or 30 per cent above average, Bournemouth and
Folkestone again the luckiest averaging over 10 hours of bright sunshine per
day. In contrast, Belfast and
Eskdalemuir recorded barely 3 hours of sun per day, 40 per cent below
normal. Most of Scotland was also
cloudy, Leuchars being the one exception of the locations monitored here. The best of the sunshine again was reserved
for the latter half of the month, with the 24th and 25th
being the two sunniest days.
Dr Mike Hulme is a Director
of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, at UEA
(more details at website at
www.tyndall.ac.uk)
June 2001: Dry; warm and sunny in south
Daytime Temperature: 0.3C below average; Rainfall: 31% below average; Sunshine: 7% below average.
[all average figures are
based on the 1951-80 average]
Mean monthly extremes:
Warmest Ross-on-Wye 20.1C
Sunniest Folkestone 308 hours sun
Wettest Eskdalemuir 89mm
Coldest Lerwick 11.4C
Cloudiest Belfast 92 hours sun
Driest Bournemouth 3mm