The general pattern of cool weather continued into July as the maximum of 19.9C was 2.9C below my 40-year average thanks to a brisk westerly breeze. There was welcome sunshine, especially in the afternoon, that saw the UV level rise to a peak of ‘Very High’. Although there was cloud cover overnight the low of 11.3C was also below average at -0.6C.
There was minimal brightness to start Tuesday with the wind having veered into the north-northeast and felt cool.
The weak ridge of high pressure continues so a mainly dry day ahead, if cloudy, as not under the centre of the high pressure that is now in mid-Atlantic. The barometric pressure at 08.00 read 1019.9mb within 1mb of the past two days.
June 2024 Review
After a warm start to the new month with a peak of 23.4C on the 2nd, the following days were very cool as the depression to the northeast brought Arctic air across our region, starting on the 3rd, with a north-westerly or westerly breeze.
The early hours of the 9th saw the thermometer drop to 2.7C at 04.22 making it the coldest June night since 2010 when a low of just 1.4C was logged.
A very brief ridge of high pressure gave us a dry day on the 12th but cool again followed by the second coldest night of the month with a minimum of 3.8C being a significant 6.4C below my 40-year average.
The Arctic began to lose its grip late afternoon on the 12th that saw the wind direction change from a northerly quarter for the past four days into the west, a warmer direction which was noticeable outside in the late afternoon sunshine.
By the 13th a depression that had been deepening in the eastern Atlantic broke the flow of Arctic air and an associated weather front began to cross the country that brought significant rain in the afternoon of the 14th with a daily total of 7.9mm.
However, the cool conditions persisted for a few more days. By the 15th only two days had given us an above average maximum and only two nights an above average minimum.
A brief period of summer arrived on the 19th with many hours of sunshine and a maximum of 23.9C on the 20th thanks to a ridge of high pressure that had built across the UK. On the 20th the loss of equivalent rainfall due to evaporation from ground sources and plant life rose to 5.01mm under the strong sunshine and light breeze.
After numerous cool nights that were well below average, a weather front crossed our area in the early hours of the 22nd, the associated cloud meant little loss of warmth into the atmosphere and produced a little light rain that amounted to 0.9mm. The thermometer only fell to 13.6C just after midnight and made it the warmest night of the month.
A much welcomed but brief spell of three days of hot, sunny weather saw the thermometer soar well above average from the 23rd. A maximum of 29.3C on the 26th was 8.7C above my 40-year average that made it the hottest day since 9th September 2023 (31.0C).
By the 28th, temperatures had been dropping again thanks to a brisk westerly breeze, gusting to 22mph. This depressed the maximum by day, combined with a clear night during the early hours of the 29th saw the thermometer drop to 5.9C being 4.3C below my 40-year average and the coldest night since the 13th.
June was certainly not a summer month with 17 days producing a below average maximum and 21 nights a below average minimum. As a consequence, the mean temperature was 0.7C below my 40-year average and the coldest June since 2011.
This cool month was reflected in the soil temperature at a depth of 5cm that averaged 15.8C when read at 0800, being 0.3C below the 12-year average.
With just 20.5mm of rainfall recorded it was the driest June since 2018 when only 5.3mm was logged. The wettest day was the 14th with 7.9mm. After so many wet months this year it was a treat to enjoy 23 dry days. The extreme wet month of June was in 1998 when143.2mm of precipitation was recorded.
There was an equivalent loss of rainfall of 101.9mm through evaporation from ground sources and plant life, thus a deficit of 81.4mm for June.
June is the month that tropical storms and hurricanes usually develop in the Atlantic, this year June was no exception with Storm Alberto developing mid-month that made landfall in north-east Mexico on 20th June. Tropical Storm Beryl followed at the end of June and promptly developed, within 42 hours, into a Category 3 hurricane and the following day into a category 4 hurricane. It is rewriting hurricane history due to its early formation, rapid intensification and unusually eastern location, that were all record-breaking. Hurricane Beryl is expected to bring potentially catastrophic hurricane- force winds of 130 to 150mph across areas of the Caribbean. The past day has seen this hurricane intensify into a category 5 with winds up to 160mph.
