Just like May, June generally disappointed. After a few decent days at the start of the month it became generally cool and changeable with unsettled conditions, characterised by frequent showers or spells of rain. There were no sustained periods of warmth with just four days attaining 20°c (brief spells at either end of the month) as the weather was generally cyclonic with high pressure mostly absent.
The month started well with settled conditions as an 'Area of High Pressure' (AHP) (1034) was to the SW of the UK, building and moving North. This brought the years warmest day so far, 25.9°c (78.6°F) on the 3rd and with the 2nd also having reached 20°c and the days being sunny and virtually calm, the start of Summer had begun well.
If an English Summer is 'Three good days followed by a thunder storm' then this wasn't Summer. We only managed the two good days as the 4th saw the temp' slip away and by the 5th we only saw a max' temp' of 10.8°c and the months coldest day. Just two days separating the warmest and coldest days of the month! That AHP had slipped West into the Atlantic allowing an 'Area of Low Pressure' (ALP) (1009) over the near continent to introduce a cool E'ly airflow. The 5th also saw the first rain of the month and made the day seem worse.
And so we entered a long period of cyclonic conditions and whilst no significant depressions came our way, showers were frequent and the daytime temp's were on the cool side.
The weather became one of showers, cloudy but with some sunny intervals and that bit cooler. Low pressure was frequently in the Atlantic and pushing through troughs of rain, but it was all a mixed bag of weather.
The 10th saw us sit in a relatively slack flow that brought some calm conditions and a cold night with temps' down to 2.8°c (although there was heavy rain for just over an hour in the afternoon). Another cold night followed in the early hours of the 12th and brought the months coldest night with 2.6°c, with both days just avoiding ground frosts. But an ALP (995) had been building in the Atlantic during this period and it arrived from the SW p.m. on the 12th and we had 9.9mm of rain.
The 14th did see a fine day as we sat in a ridge of high pressure but that moved away east on the 15th and an ALP (978) west of Eire was moving closer and brought some light rain a.m.
The 16th was a reasonable day despite an ALP (984) west of Eire but a developing frontal wave located over Cornwall was to move North and bring light rain 17th. The 18th saw more rain as a large ALP (994) was centred over the UK with weather fronts lying through the Irish sea and moving east.
The 20th was pleasant enough until rain arrived p.m. and stayed into the 21st. A complex ALP (998) SW of the UK was moving North and with several fronts that became slow moving when over the North UK.
The 22nd with 19.2 mm of rain was to be the months wettest day. That ALP (1001) was now well established in form and location over the UK. It created a fairly slack area and had an occlusion front entrained around it. It was slow moving and lasted into the 23rd maintaining heavy rain into a.m. that day, becoming fresher behind the rain once clear of us.
The last week of the month saw a slight improvement with temp's a little higher and rain was less frequent. A ridge of high pressure extending North from the Azores brought a settled day but then an ALP to the west of the UK moved east and brought a little rain. We had rain overnight on the 25th as a weather front moved through with an ALP (994) slowly advancing east from the Atlantic.
However, a warm sector behind that front started to influence the UK weather, although Cumbria was at its furthest northern edge and our temp' increases were less pronounced than those further south. Both the 26th and 27th saw temps well over the 20°c mark with the 27th very warm at 25.8°c. It was however also quite humid. A very warm S'ly flow brought those warm and humid conditions and nightime temps were a little too high for comfort (13.3°c 26th).
Whilst the 26th had been sunny with the 27th cloudy, the 28th saw cooler air move in from the North and a sunny day felt more comfortable at 17.6°c.
The month ended reasonably, not especailly warm with a NW'ly air flow, but we had some brightness.
And so a disappointing first month of Summer drew to a close. Reasonable start and end but nothing spectacular, but somehow bang on the long term average temp'.
Rain fall totalled 65.8 mm for the month.
The Mean Temperature for the month was 12.29°c+ -- The Mean Max' was 16.49°c -- The Mean Min' 8.09°c.
We had 0 Air Frosts in the month (year 30) -- Grass frosts totalled 0 (year 50).
The 30 cm soil temp ranged from 12.1°c on the 1st to 17.0°c on the 28th -- with a monthly mean of 14.1°c
COMPARISONS:-
* June 2011 rainfall was 85.0% of the June average for 2007 - 2010
* June 2011 was 1.5°c colder than June 2010 -- 1.14°c colder than 2009 +
* June saw 19 days of rain, of which 12 were wet days.
* April/May/June 2010 was TEMP' 10.33°c -- RAIN 65.8 mm
* April/May/June 2009 was TEMP' 10.85°c -- RAIN 151.2 mm
* April/May/June 2008 was TEMP' -- RAIN 170.4 mm
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* 2011 To date TEMP' 7.68°c -- RAIN 599.3 mm
* 2010 Jan - June TEMP' 6.28°c -- RAIN 206.4 mm
* 2009 Jan - June TEMP' 7.61°c -- RAIN 450.5 mm
* 2008 Jan - June TEMP' -- RAIN 621.1 mm
JANUARY 2010
FEBRUARY 2010
MARCH 2010
APRIL 2010
MAY 2010
JUNE 2010
JULY 2010
AUGUST 2010
SEPTEMBER 2010
OCTOBER 2010
NOVEMBER 2010
DECEMBER 2010
JANUARY 2011
FEBRUARY 2011
MARCH 2011
APRIL 2011
MAY 2011
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+ Met office figures for June show that NW England/N. Wales had a mean temp' of 12.6°c, this being equal to the mean for the reference period 1971-2000 (-0.1°c colder than reference period 1961-90)