Warm, unsettled and wet month of June
Flash flooding locally followed heat
THE term flaming June is a bit of a misnomer as hot and dry Junes are extremely rare events and this year like most others it was predominately unsettled and wet!
Afternoon temperatures averaged 20c which is close to the expected figure while nights were logged at 11.7c about 1.2c above normal due to the large amounts of cloud at times.
The mean of 15.9c was 0.8c warmer than normal making it the warmest June since 2018. it was predominately cloudy however with just 164 hours being recorded in the county which is 10% below normal.
It was also another wet month with 87.6mm falling at Mountsorrel which is 47% above normal with rain falling on 18 days in the month. Winds were strong at times gusting to 40 mph on the 28th.
The first couple of days of June were warm and sunny as the long warm and dry spell in March, April and May finally came to an end. It became much cooler and unsettled from the 3rd onwards with the 7th being our coldest day of the month at just 13.4c and the night of the 6th being our coldest night at 7.4c.
On the 13th a much more humid air arrived from the South but the air pressure remained Low. This then sparked off several days of thunderstorms that began on the 14th with storms daily to the 17th. However the worst of the storms stayed to the west of the region with a heavy storm finally arriving on Wed 17th. This produced 12mm of rain in Mountsorrel in just a few minutes and caused some flash flooding.
The day after the 18th saw our wettest day with 19mm falling in a thoroughly miserable day.
The weather changed again with a short heatwave starting on the 22nd to the 26th as a ridge of high pressure built to the east of the UK and some very hot and humid air was drawn northwards. The 25th saw our hottest day with temperatures peaking at 29.7c with 15.7 hours of sun our sunniest day of the month.
The warmth didnt last too long however some very heavy showers arriving on the 27th. These gave 13mm of rain in just 15 minutes and the rate of rainfall was 240mm/HR at one point which is very heavy indeed and more local flash flooding was the result.
So a very mixed summer month as June usually is and as we enter July this changeable theme looks like remaining with cooler showery periods being interspersed with some warm sunshine at times!