Monthly summary June 2011

June 2011 was a cool month and also broke the trend of three consecutive months with below average rainfall. The mean temperature was 14.3°C which is 0.6°C below the long-term average. There were two brief periods (2nd – 4th and 25th – 27th) when we enjoyed warm weather with a maximum of 27.2°C on the 27th. The record for June stands at 31.6° which was recorded on June 30th 1995.

The rainfall of 63.1mm was 115% of the long-term average. Looking at the rainfall data for the first six months of the year I find that 2011 was the sixth driest I have recorded since my station started in 1984.

The solar radiation was 17% below the figure for 2010.

In a previous email I referred to my anemometer (it is sited at the top of a four metre pole that is fixed permanently above the ridge of the bungalow), which had been attacked by a rook. During June there were three nights when the wind dropped out and the instrument was disabled. This time the culprit/s were spiders which overnight had tied up the anemometer and wind vain. It takes a surprisingly strong gust of wind to break the gossamer threads so I have to free the instruments by standing tip-toe on a wall whilst holding at arms length an eight metre fibre-glass pole.

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