https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2018/07/02/sweltering-june-it-was-much-hotter-in-1846/
By Paul Homewood
It’s certainly been flamin’ June, but how hot has it really been?
According to the Central England Temperature series, it only ranks 10th warmest since 1659. The hottest June was in 1846:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/data/download.html
The last really hot June was in 1976, which averaged 17.0C, compared to 16.5C last month, and the two months make an interesting comparison.
The highest temperature recorded anywhere in the UK last month was 33.0C at Porthmadog:
However this was well short of the UK record for June of 35.6C set in 1957, and equalled in 1976:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/climate-extremes/#?tab=climateExtremes
Indeed, it was not even a June record for Wales, which still stands at 33.7C in 2000.
On CET, daily max temperatures have been consistently above normal virtually all month, but only exceptionally high during the last few days:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cet_info_max.html
When we compare with 1976, we see that the exceptionally hot days in 1976 were much more common, and much hotter, than 2018. However, a comparatively cool start to the month in 1976 helped to keep the monthly average down:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cetmaxdly1878on_urbadj4.dat
In 1976, CET daily temperatures reached 30.3C, whereas the hottest day this year was 28.5C. There were in fact seven days in 1976 hotter or as hot as this year.
I regularly chart days of over 30C, of which there were nine during the summer of 1976, and four the previous year. The last day over 30C was in 2016:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cetmaxdly1878on_urbadj4.dat
High pressure will continue to dominate at least for the next week or two, the time of year when we would typically expect daily temperatures to peak, and we may well see 30C plus days next weekend.
But so far there has been nothing remotely unusual about the weather we have had this summer.
