In this day and age, it seems that months queue up on a regular basis to claim the title “warmest ever”, but, one has to ask, for how many years has the record for June stood unchallenged? The weather we’ve had in recent weeks will certainly be talked about in years to come.

Things didn’t begin very well, the expression “Flaming June” probably being used in a pejorative way in Wellington on June 1, as a warm, sunny morning gave way to an afternoon plagued by a sequence of heavy showers that yielded 9mm in the Wellington rain gauge.

The Met Office rain radar suggested that these formed in the Tiverton area, slowly tracking east-north-east, with fine weather to the north and south of us. In retrospect, we were fortunate to get that rain.

From June 2–13 our area received no measurable rainfall. June 5 was rather grey and cool, and June 7-8 dull and muggy, but none of these days offered more than a few spots. Otherwise, we enjoyed plenty of sunshine, light winds and temperatures by day and night well above normal for early June.

The drought was interrupted – just – with a sprinkling late on June 13 and there was dampness in the air at first on June 16, with some afternoon showers that missed us completely.

A morning with prolonged light drizzle the next day yielded 0.5mm in the rain gauge, but that would be the last rain we’d see in June.

From then on, the days tended to heat up, 25C (77F) being reached in Wellington on June 19. It was a humid, oppressive day, after a night with a minimum of 15.5C (60F).

June 21 was the start of an exceptionally fine spell, that day having sparkling sunshine and a light breeze from the north, keeping it relatively cool at 19C (66F).

The calm, clear night that followed saw temperatures in some rural spots in southern England fall within a degree of two of freezing, very low for midsummer, but the 5C (41F) recorded in Wellington was not exceptionally chilly.

For the last ten days of the month, we enjoyed almost unbroken sunshine from dawn till dusk. With daytime maxima in Wellington during the final week exceeding 26.5C (80F) on every day, it was some relief that a few nights were cooler than had been the case earlier in the month. 30C (86F) was reached on June 26, our seventh highest June reading since the summer of 1976, with five other days inside the Top 30.

In summary, the month was outstandingly warm, dry and sunny. The total rainfall of just below 10mm was 16% of the average, and only in 1962 and 1995 has June been drier in this area.

Although not an “absolute drought” in the strict sense, the 29 days with less than 1mm on the wettest day constitutes our longest such dry spell since June/July 1995.

Wellington’s overall mean temperature was an almost unbelievable 17.7C (63.9F), more than 2.5C above average.

There have been only 11 warmer months in the last 40 years, most of them being Julys. In this region, it was warmer overall than June 1976, so the answer to the question at the start of this piece is, of course, 42.

SIMON RATSEY

WWN Weather Correspondent