Sunniest and driest Junes on record

[BlueSkies_do_I_see]

This June has been glorious so far. Warm, sunny and dry.. and not too hot. I wonder if forum members would share their favourite Junes during their lifetimes. The warmest of my life was June 1976, so warm my father and I lay in a stream in the Lake District to stay cool!

[Norrance]

June 1975 was great too. The contrast from a really cold end to Spring and early June snow to sustained warmth and sunny weather.

[Milhouse]

Cant share much with regards to Junes before 2003. Best one i can remember since then has got to be 2006.

[Methuselah]

A fair part of 1970 was quite tasty, too...

[GRHinPorts]

I have a feeling June 1921 holds the record for most sunshine and probably driest too but having read it somewhere on the net I cant now find a link.

[summer blizzard]

June's 2005 and 2006 were good.

[Weather-history]

I have a feeling June 1921 holds the record for most sunshine and probably driest too but having read it somewhere on the net I cant now find a link.

June 1925 is the driest on record for England and Wales. Junes 1992, 1995 and 1996 were pretty decent around here

[Summer of 95]

2005 was the best one I can remember - cool nights to start, then warm to hot days, plenty of sun and that storm on the 19th. Notably it had no cloudy easterlies, SE vs the rest setups, or boring mucky mild westerlies. Just sunny northerlies and sunny southerlies.

 

2006 superb first half, but very disappointing second half, similar to May 2008. 1992 was probably the second best, after an unsettled first 10 days it was sunny and warm through to the end.

 

It's notable there hasn't been a June in the mould of July 2006, July 1995, August 1995, July 1983, April 2007, September 2006 since 1976- the increase in wet dull Junes since 1980 sticks out in the long term record.

[hillbilly]

a few short memories,anyone remember june 2010,the best summer month by far since 2006,in fact the only summer month in the last 18 summer months in these parts

[Richard2901]

Sunniest Junes on record here were 1936 with 284 hours and 1940 with 279 hours. 1930 and 1933 also managed 250 hours and 1970 247 hours.

Those were the days when June was the sunniest month of the year and totals over 200 hours were recorded regularly. Since 1971 June has become markedly cooler, cloudier and wetter, particularly so from 1997 onwards. Since 2007 it has been the cloudiest month of the year with 2007 being the dullest on record and 2012 little better.

Sunniest since 1971 was June 1986 with 226 hours and in the truly abysmal run since 1997, only 2003 has managed 200 hours - and only just - and this was the last time June was sunnier than average.

[weatherguru14]

a few short memories,anyone remember june 2010,the best summer month by far since 2006,in fact the only summer month in the last 18 summer months in these parts

April 2 years ago was a  good summer month.. wasn't summer  but felt  like it that month.. from what I recall..

[hillbilly]

just done a little digging and get 1996 as the warmest since 1976,with1970 in second and 1940 the warmest in these parts.no june has been sunnier since 1976 at 221 hrs'89with 203,'96 with217 and 2010 with 204hrs  1975,70,69,67,60,50,49,22,19,14 and 1911 all sunnier than 76 averaging about230 hrs with both1940 out in front on 280 hrs and1957 the sunniest on 300 hrs!!,I  hope I didn't make a mistake there

[BlueSkies_do_I_see]

Seems like those Junes of yesteryear were fantastic. So say we had as much sun for the remainder of June as we have had in the opening week, what sort of hourly total would we be looking at?

[Thundery wintry showers]

I've moved around the country quite a bit over the years.  Since I started observing the weather closely in 1993, I found Junes 1996 and 2003 in Tyneside, June 2005 in Lancaster, June 2009 in Exeter and June 2010 in Norwich all pretty enjoyable.

 

I spent June 2006 in Leeds and remember a lot of warm sunshine during the first 12 days and then mainly cloudy skies from the 13th onwards- indeed similar to May 2008.

 

In general, although many of us are still waiting for a June akin to 1975 or 1976 (1975 was generally more spectacular for sunshine, 1976 for heat), there has been a recovery since the frequent dull cool wet Junes of the 1980s, which has been more convincing in the south of the country than in the north.

 

In answer to the original question, the Met Office's UK regional stats make interesting reading.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/datasets/#

 

They suggest that quite a few recent Junes, while not quite up there with 1975/76, have featured within the top 10 driest and/or sunniest in many regions- 1995, 1996, 2006, 2009 and 2010 for instance.  In general there has been a recovery since the frequent washout Junes of the 1980s but to the north of the Scottish border this recovery has been far from convincing.

[hillbilly]

further to yesterdays post..1990 dullest with 90 hrs of sunshine.

1995 driest in recent times with 11mm

1976..15mm

1941..9.8mm

1925...2,1mm

driest..1921...1.3mm for this area

[Lake District Blizzard]

June 75 is hard to beat for sunshine i think in Cumbria

Carlisle had 278 hours, Sellafield 293 hours, Aspatria would probably have broken the 300 hour mark if it had recorded sun that month

[Terminal Moraine]

The sunniest Junes at this site, back to 1977, were 1989 with 240.1 hrs and 1984 with 222.7 hrs; however Buxton recorded 274.5 hrs in June 1975 and 273.5 hrs in June 1940.

The driest Junes on my record, again back to 1977, were 1983 with 16.4 mm and 1995 with 16.5 mm; however an earlier record of mine at a nearby site shows 1975 was the driest of the lot with 11.6 mm and 1967 was also very dry with 15.0 mm.

Buxton recorded only 4.4 mm in June 1925.

[Milhouse]

On a related note, some parts of Northern England must be close to surpassing last Junes sunshine total already. The way things are going we may be on far an appreciably above average month.

[Methuselah]

Some places must be pushing 90 hrs already...If the overall monthly averages do come out below average, the rest of the month will have to be utter crap!

[hillbilly]

june 1957 is the sunniest of any month here since 1908.also 1911 is the sunniest summer even having a sunny may and September,what a year that must have been!

[virtualsphere]

For me, 2010 was the best June I can remember, the others that stand out for me are 1995, 1996 and 2005.  I did wonder whether this is just selective memory because we've had so many bad summer months since 2007, making June 2010 stood out more than the others, but the statistics back up that it was sunnier than any June since 1975 for my area: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/pub/data/weather/uk/climate/actualmonthly/6/Sunshine/Wales.gif (Met Office)

 

It probably is selective memory that 2006 isn't included, because the rest of the summer was so good that June didn't particularly stand out.  Surprisingly 2004 was sunnier than 2005 according to the graph but I don't remember that being exceptional.

 

The other interesting thing for me about that graph is the stark difference between the years before 1975 and the years afterwards.  1975, 1969, 1960, 1957, 1949, 1940 were all sunnier than 2010 and yet we've not had anything better in 38 years.  On a positive note, 2013 so far is looking like it might give them some competition!

[BlueSkies_do_I_see]

Hillbilly, funny you should mention 1911. I'm reading an historical / novel book all about that summer right now called The Perfect Summer by Juliet Nicholson. It really was a glorious summer as you say stretching all the way from May to September. Most warm weather fans on here would definitely settle for a repeat of that summer!

[AderynCoch]

Some places must be pushing 90 hrs already...If the overall monthly averages do come out below average, the rest of the month will have to be utter crap!

Highest I can find is Camborne with 84.4 hours (http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/~brugge/CURR.html), though that probably doesn't include today's figures. There's still some way to go to pass last June's dismal equivalents, though the 43.3 hours recorded so far at Eskdalemuir isn't too far from last year's paltry monthly aggregate of 57.8 hours.

[Terminal Moraine]

On a related note, some parts of Northern England must be close to surpassing last Junes sunshine total already. The way things are going we may be on far an appreciably above average month.

Yes, we've already surpassed it here. 77.71 hours of sunshine in the first 7 days of this month compared to a total of 63.74 hrs for the whole of June 2012.

[virtualsphere]

Hillbilly, funny you should mention 1911. I'm reading an historical / novel book all about that summer right now called The Perfect Summer by Juliet Nicholson. It really was a glorious summer as you say stretching all the way from May to September. Most warm weather fans on here would definitely settle for a repeat of that summer!

The contrast between the summers of 1911 and 1912 must have been particularly stark for those who lived through them!