‘Junuary’ was actually very sunny, says Met Office

It may have started cold, but June saw more hours of sunshine than would normally be expected - BPNS

Chilly “Junuary” in fact had more sunshine than average for the time of year, the Met Office has said.

June was marked by its relatively cool start, with temperatures 2C below average for the time of year during its first two weeks. But sunshine hours were up 12 per cent in England and 4 per cent for the UK compared with the average June.

Despite the cooler start to the month, heatwave temperatures in the last two weeks pushed overall June temperatures up to only 0.4C below the long-term average.

Temperatures in the first two weeks of June were below average because of cold Arctic air being blown across the UK by northerly winds, a Met Office spokesperson said.

High pressure and the jet stream moving north brought more warmth during the second half of the month, especially in the south, with a high of 30.3C recorded at Heathrow Airport on June 26 and some areas of south-east England exceeding 28C for several days.

'Junuary' ended when warmer temperatures arrived in the second half of the month - PA/Andrew Matthews

Temperatures returned to around, or below, average before June ended.

The month was also relatively dry, with 29 per cent less rainfall across the UK compared to what would be expected.

Wales and the south of England were particularly dry. Wales recorded 48.1mm of rain, which is 48 per cent less than average while the south of England recorded 24.8mm – 58 per cent less than the average.

The lower June temperatures were in stark contrast to those seen the month before, when an average temperature of 13.1C saw the warmest May in records dating back to 1884. It also came after the UK had its wettest spring since 1986 and the sixth wettest on record.

A Met Office spokesperson said: “Temperatures in the first two weeks of June were below average...due to northerly winds bringing cold Arctic air across the UK in what was a cool start to meteorological summer.”

Festival goers at Glastonbury were lucky and avoided chilly and wet weather as June drew to a close - Getty Images/Leon Neal

The balmy weather that followed was short-lived, and July began with highs of 21.3C at Plymouth, the coolest start to the month since 2016, when maximum temperatures of 20.6C were recorded at Holbeach in Lincolnshire. That compared to a maximum temperature recorded last year of 23.8C.

Temperatures are expected to remain cool throughout the coming week, with wet and windy weather from Wednesday.

The Met Office measures sunshine using either the Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder, invented in the 19th century, or modern sunshine sensors.

The Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder, which is being phased out, uses a glass sphere to focus the sun’s direct radiation on a graduated card. The Met Office says the method can significantly overestimate sunshine duration on cloudy days. Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorders are still in use at many of the 140 manual climate stations it operates.

The 260 automated stations, which record in real time, are more likely to use modern sunshine sensors which use an array of light detectors to estimate the intensity of direct sunlight.

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