By Philip Eden

Memories of June, at least in the southern half of Britain, are probably dominated by the warm and sunny weather which prevailed during the last two weeks, but this barely counterbalanced consistently cool weather earlier in the month. Further north cool conditions persisted throughout. Mean maximum temperature ranged from 20.9C at Heathrow Airport to just 11.2C at Lerwick in Shetland. Compared with the long-term average June was 1-2 degC warmer than normal in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Dorset, but 1-2 degC colder than normal in northern and western parts of both Scotland and Northern Ireland. In most parts of the country it was cooler than June last year.

It was a dry month over much of the UK. Averaged over England and Wales, June's aggregate rainfall was 40mm which is 38% below the long-term mean, making it the driest since 1996. However, in Scotland the equivalent figures were 55mm and 6 per cent above, and in Northern Ireland 57mm and 11 per cent below. The dryness was most pronounced in southern England, particularly in East Sussex and Somerset where less than 20% of the normal June rainfall was recorded. At Lyneham in Wiltshire, the month's totals was just 14mm. By contrast Coltishall near Norwich experienced two heavy but very localised downpours and the month's rainfall there amounted to 98mm - two and a half times the long-term average there.

Sunshine distribution mirrored the temperature pattern, with a marked shortfall in the northern half of the country but an excess in southern districts. Averaged over England and Wales the month's total was 204 hours, just 3% below the long-term mean. Sco tland's total of 150 hours was 17 per cent below normal, while Northern Ireland's figure of 128 hours was 28 per cent below. Sunniest spot in the British Isles was St Helier on Jersey with a total of 303 hours.