In brief it was a cool and very dry June in Royston, but sunshine was near average.

June was the 6^th consecutive colder than average month (i.e. every month so far this year!). Only two very warm days occurred in the month, 19^th with a maximum temperature of 26.5°C (the highest temperature of the month), and 30^th when the temperature reached 25.8°C.

Otherwise temperatures were unexceptional and failed to reach 20°C on 17 days in the month. A particularly cool day occurred on 13^th when the maximum temperature reached only 13.6°C, no less than 6.4°C below the 30 Year average for this day. The lowest night minimum temperature recorded in June was 3.6°C on 4^th, whilst the grass minimum temperature also fell to its lowest value of 0.9°C on this date. Thus a ground frost was just avoided at this weather station but it is possible that a ground frost may have occurred in lower parts of Royston. The highest night minimum temperature in June was 15.4°C on 19^th.

The mean daily maximum temperature in June was 19.7°C, which is 0.5°C below average. The mean night minimum temperature was 0.9°C below average at 9.9°C.

The mean temperature in June this year was just 0.1°C higher than in June last year, and these two months have been the coolest Junes since 1995.

The mean earth temperature at 30 cms depth as recorded at 0900 GMT daily was 15.8°C, which is 1.2°C below average. The highest and lowest earth temperatures in June were 17.4°C and 13.9°C on 20^th and 2^nd respectively.

After the very wet June in 2012 (when rainfall of 125.1 millimetres was recorded) this June was in complete contrast and only managed 17.0 millimetres rainfall, which is only 36% of average. It was the driest June in Royston since 1996 (8.0 millimetres).

The wettest day of the month was 22^nd with 3.2 millimetres rainfall. The number of "rain days" (0.2 millimetres or more) was 11, with rainfall exceeding 1.0 millimetres on 8 of these days.

Rainfall for January/June 2012 was 213.5 millimetres, which is 79% of average.

After a rather dull day on 1^st June an exceptional 77.6 hours of sunshine occurred in the next 6 days of the month. This high level of sunshine did not last, however, and by the end of the month the cumulative sunshine total had slipped to just below average. Total sunshine in the month was 177.7 hours, which is 97% of normal.

The sunniest day in June was 4^th with15.6 hours sunshine. No day in June was completely sunless, the last sunless day experienced being 24^th March.

A maximum wind gust speed of 43 mph in June occurred on 23^rd and for the month as a whole a mean wind speed of 7.0 mph was registered. The windiest day (00/00 GMT) of the month was 23^rd with a mean wind speed of 15.4 mph, whilst the calmest day was 10^th with a mean wind speed of 1.8 mph.

As regards wind direction the analysis of this element as observed at 0900 GMT daily was as follows: NORTH 3 days, NE 9, E 1, SE 2, S 1, SW 6, W 5, NW 3 and CALM 0.

The mean MSL air pressure in June was 1017.5 mB (the highest monthly mean so far this year), which is 0.7 mB above average. The highest and lowest air pressure values recorded in the month were 1032.4 mB and 1002.0 mB on 3^rd and 23^rd respectively.

The mean relative humidity in June was 78.1°C. The highest daily (00/00 GMT) mean relative humidity was 94.6% on 28^th; the lowest daily mean relative humidity was 68.4% on 3^rd. The absolute lowest relative humidity reading in the month was 37% at 1745 GMT on 14^th.

Fog (visibility < 1000 metres at 0900 GMT) was not observed on any day in June.

Met. Observer, Royston (Iceni) Weather Station

5^th July 2013