AS far as temperatures go, recent Junes have been notably "average", being within a degree Celsius (2F) of the long-term mean. This year's was at the top end of this range, making it the mildest for ten years here at Carlton in Cleveland, near Stokesley.

This also put it in line with every month so far this year. Additionally, it was quite dry - the driest June for six years. Since last September, only February has been appreciably wetter than usual. Towards the Pennines, both temperatures and rainfall were nearer normal.

At the very end of May, the weather looked to be settling down as pressure rose over the Continent. This gave a promising, fine, warm and sunny start to June and the long jubilee weekend. Yet, as early as Saturday evening, thunderstorms were breaking out over the far south-west of Britain. These moved north-east to affect our region on the Sunday, but by then, had become largely insignificant. Fresher conditions followed, with just a few, mostly slight showers on the Monday.

Tuesday was fine, but the trough that brought this change came back to life over eastern France. A thundery low developed and transferred north, bringing extensive rainfall to eastern England on the Wednesday, with a cool north-easterly breeze. It remained dull and dreary for the rest of the week, though the cloud thinned on the Saturday as the wind backed towards the south-east. This preceded an Atlantic frontal system that swept in to give further spells of rain on the Sunday.

This heralded the return of south-westerlies for the rest of the month. One after another, about four quite deep lows meandered slowly north-east close to the north-west of the British Isles. Ahead of each, a warm front pushed very mild, sticky air north across Britain for about 24 hours. This was followed by the associated cold front, introducing a less humid feel from the west, with sunny intervals and showers, though with temperatures still near or above what they should be.

In the last few days, the depressions took a more easterly track, and with the wind veering more north-westerly, it turned cooler.

Away from western hills, frontal rains were generally light and patchy, apart from on the final Sunday. Showers too were mainly slight and well scattered throughout the month. A few were quite beefy, particularly on the 10th and 11th, as we can expect in the late spring and summer with the power of the sun producing vigorous thermals from the ground. However, amounts from even these were small, as they passed by quickly in the often brisk wind.

The main exception to the relative dryness was on Friday the 14th. After a very oppressive afternoon, circumstances were ideal for the next cold front to produce a line of torrential downpours as it crossed the region. I happened to be driving to the regular, monthly meeting of the Royal Meteorological Society at Durham that evening. Going over the Tees flyover on the A19 at about 7pm, with thunder and lightning all around, the deluge was so intense that it brought traffic to a standstill. Others had similar experiences on their way, providing a lively topic of conversation at the meeting.

After what I'd travelled through, I feared the bottle in my rain-gauge at home might have overflowed. I needn't have worried. I recorded just 19mm (0.75in) for the day, still nearly half the month's total, and with half of this falling in about 15 minutes. I presumed, therefore, that Carlton must have missed the worst of the rainstorms but reports from colleagues around the area painted a remarkably uniform picture.

Incidentally, my bottle takes the equivalent of about 75mm (3in) of rain, and the gauge itself, about 300mm (12in). The former figure is more than the largest daily total I've ever measured in my 19 years of records, 62mm (2.5in) on August 4, 1993. The latter exceeds the greatest accumulation ever logged in one day anywhere in Great Britain, 279mm (11in) at Martinstown, Dorset, on July 18, 1955.

If the bottle did overflow, I would have to dig up the gauge to recover the over-spill - a bit of a nuisance, but well worth it for the record that would be set!

JUNE TEMPERATURES

and RAINFALL at

CARLTON IN CLEVELAND

Mean max 18.2C, 65F (+0.75C, +1.5F)

Mean min 10C, 50F, (+1C, +2F)

Highest max 23.2C, 74F, 17th

Lowest min 5.6C, 42F, 28th

Total rainfall 46mm, 1.8in, (-16mm, -0.6in)

Wettest day 19mm, 0.75in, 14th

No of rain days, with 0.2mm (0.01in) or more: 14 (+0)

(Figures in brackets show the

difference from the 18-year mean, 1984-2001)