June in Marlborough was a disappointing summer month – wetter than average and below average solar energy, due to a depression that was reluctant to depart our shores as it slowly revolved around the UK for many days.
The month started well with two days of above average maximum temperatures – 25.6C and 22.3C on June 1 and 2. Thereafter it went downhill with 18 consecutive days of below average maximum temperatures.
Not until June 22 did some warmth return, as an anticyclone eased in from the west, when the temperatures began to rise well above average with a maximum of 31.8C on June 29. But the anticyclone’s influence was too brief to change our views of the month’s weather.
This peak was 11.6C above average and the warmest June day since 2017 (32.2C), all thanks to a blast of hot air from the Sahara Desert.
On the downside the thermometer only rose to 11.4C on June 11, almost 9C below average with the previous very cool night down to 4.5C (that was -5.6C below our average).
Although we had an average number of wet days, (rainfall equal to or greater than 1mm) the precipitation was 133 per cent of the 35-year average – that equals an extra 17.6mm.
The main contributor to the monthly total was a very wet day on June 10 when 25.1mm of rainfall was recorded making it the wettest day since May 2018 when 31.9mm fell.
The amount of equivalent rainfall lost to the atmosphere, due to evaporation from ground sources and plant life, amounted to 85.7mm – and that was 15mm above the rainfall in what was a wet month. So despite all the rain, the aquifers were not being replenished and the water table remains low.
It was not surprising to find the UV level for the month was the lowest since 2012 and solar energy only 91 per cent of the 9-year average.
On the bright side there were no days with fog, hail or frost (compared to two days in 1991) and we missed the torrential downpours that some areas of the country endured.
On Sunday (June 30) a city in Mexico suffered from a fall of ice pellets two metres deep when the normal temperature there is around 30C. Marlborough is fortunate in that we have for a long time not suffered from the extremes of weather that other areas of the world – and our country – have experienced.
There are daily records at Eric Gilbert’s Windrush Weather website: https://www.windrushweather.co.uk/station
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