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JUNE 2008 TAlthough nowhere on the scale of last June’s washout, the first of this years summer months has to go down as a disappointment yet again, with no prolonged fine spell and only a couple of days that could be classed as hot. It seems that we are struggling again this year to have any spell of very warm weather lasting more than just 24 hours, whereas in an average British summer, we manage around three days before the heat gives way to a thundery breakdown. Quite why the weather is behaving this way is anybody’s guess, but once again the jet stream has played its part. A series of Atlantic depressions and frontal systems moving across the UK, has meant that the weather has remained mostly unsettled for a large part of the month and the wind direction seemed to be frequently coming in from a cool north or north westerly direction with only a few exceptions. Unlike last June though, the most potent depressions have been concentrated to the north west of the UK, which is more typical for this time of year, but they have still managed to infiltrate the weak Azores High Pressure ridge which can only be described as flimsy at best. The rainfall total for the month of 36.5mm or 1.46 inches is below average for a change, but one theme of the weather for this month has been the large amounts of cloud. Even when we experienced a ridge of high pressure, the air source was such that we were only greeted with blue skies early in the morning and late in the afternoon. The depleted sunshine was a big disappointment. The hottest day of the month occurred on the 8th when the temperature reached 26.6°C or just over 80°F. Three days later it was down to 16.1°C 61°F. In fact there were some unusually chilly nights, again due to the cool northerly wind. Some areas in parts of the UK even suffered a slight ground frost! An unusually deep low pressure area around the 23rd resulted in a full blown gale for many parts of the UK, again underlining the failure of the Azores High to get a grip on our weather, and steer such systems well out of reach of the UK. Let’s hope it can make amends in July. Colin Harwood |
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