Sunday gave us plenty of sunshine in the morning thereafter encroaching cloud from the depression over the near continent meant it was reduced after midday producing a total of 6.5 hours and a maximum of 29.9C.
The new month started with another dry day and the UV level maintained in the Very High category.
Overnight was very mild with the thermometer not dropping below 15.4C at 06.00 on Monday morning.
Monday update at 17.00: maximum of 28.3C at 16.58 moderated by frequent gusts of north eastern winds up 22 mph.
Summary for June 2018
Rainfall record for June broken
The average rainfall for June, since this station started in 1984, was 54.5mm but June 2018 produced only 5.3mm. The previous record for the driest month was set in 1995 with 12.5mm but in contrast June 1998 gave us a deluge with 143.2mm.
There were 22 totally dry days but that obscures the fact that on four days there was very little rainfall to record from drizzle or from brief, light rain showers. The wettest day brought us just 1.8mm.
The lack of rainfall is only half the picture for this dry month as evaporation from ground sources and plant life meant the equivalent rainfall of 110.4mm was lost to the atmosphere. That was 16mm above the 10-year average.
June was also memorable for the strong sunshine that totalled 235 hours. The average over the past four years, when this instrument was installed, was 135 hours. June followed the sunny May that gave us 237 hours of sunshine.
The sunniest day occurred on the 27th with 16.88 hours of ‘wall to wall’ sunshine that followed 16.72 hours and 16.68 hours on the 26th and 25th respectively. There were no days when the sun did not trigger the sunshine recorder, however, it appeared briefly for only 1 minute on the 17th and 5 minutes on the 4th.
The many hours of strong sunshine meant that UV reached into the Very High level on 23 days.
The month started on a warm note with three days of above average temperatures, peaking at 25.1C on the 3rd, which was 5C above the 34-year average. The middle of the month saw temperatures cooling off a little but by the 21st the many hours of sunshine meant that the last 9 days in June were well above average, the 26th being the hottest with a maximum of 28.7C when the 34-year average was 19.96C.
The mean temperature for the month was 1.7C above the average principally down to many hot days as the daytime mean was +2.5C and the night mean +0.8C.
There were several chilly nights when the thermometer dropped into single figures, the coolest being 4.5C in the early hours of the 22nd.
The many hours of strong sunshine, high temperatures and lack of rain has meant that the soil temperature at a depth of 5cm rose to 21.4C at 08.00 on the morning of the 26th.
