THE dismal start to July may have made us fear it was pay-back time for all the lovely weather we've had this year.

We needn't have worried, for within a few days there was a remarkable turn-around and by mid-month, records were being broken once more. However, the last ten days or so did see a return of more normal conditions.

Temperatures around mid-month were widely the highest for three years and the hottest in July for eight, though here at Carlton, near Stokesley, the peak was a decimal point short of that on the 17th of August last year. The chilly beginning was easily outweighed by this heatwave, allowing the sequence of mild months since January to continue.

Cloudier skies and the breeze meant that, even during the cooler spells, temperatures were kept well up at night. Accordingly, mean minima were the warmest I've recorded in any July and the second highest for any month, after August 1997, in my 20 years of data. Overall, it was my fourth warmest July and generally the mildest for eight years.

With getting on for half the expected rainfall for July in the first two days, especially in the east of the region, a wet month seemed on the cards. In the end, rainfall was close to average.

The depression which gave the cold, wet, final day of June, so out of character with the rest of the month, transferred slowly across the North Sea at the start of July. In its wake, cool, northerly winds carried bands of rain, wrapped round the low, into eastern districts for a couple of more days. Then, when it dried up, it remained mostly dull and misty until the Sunday the 6th.

This was the first prolonged period of miserable northerlies this year - how lucky we've been! However, pressure was rising slowly but steadily. The breeze gradually backed to the south-west and the weather reverted to the pattern we're familiar with this year, with high pressure over the near continent.

Depressions, once more, largely steered to the west or north of the country and associated frontal systems were weak by the time they reached us. Also, showers that developed on one or two days were chiefly slight and well scattered. It became very warm as winds turned southerly and later south-easterly. The four days from Sunday the 13th were hot with almost unbroken sunshine and the coastal strip mainly avoiding sea frets.

High temperatures, principally over France, sparked off thunderstorms ahead of a weak front moving slowly east. These affected the far South-West as early as the Monday, but didn't arrive here until the Thursday. Cooler, fresher conditions followed briefly, but the cycle repeated itself as another low and its trough pushed north-east.

More thundery showers broke out over the weekend, but were few and far between, at least until Monday the 21st.

After this, almost inevitably to coincide with the start of the school holidays, the weather took on a more unsettled look. The ridge from the Azores anticyclone slipped away south towards the Mediterranean and depressions in the Atlantic deepened. Eventually, a complex area of low pressure milled around in the north-east of the ocean, close to us. Consequently, frontal systems became more active and, as a result, Friday the 25th was particularly wet across Britain, as was the 29th. JULY TEMPERATURES & RAINFALL at CARLTON-in-CLEVELAND:

Mean max 21.2C, 70F, (+0.9C, +1.5F)

Mean min 12.9C, 55F, (+1.5C, +2.5F)

Highest max 28.1C, 82.5F, 15th

Lowest min 9.0C, 48F, 13th

Total rainfall 54mm, 2.1ins, (+7mm, +0.3ins)

Wettest day 11mm, 0.4ins, 2nd

No of rain days, with 0.2mm (0.01ins) or more: 15 (+1.5).

Figures in brackets show the difference from the 20-year mean, 1984-2003.