JULY started on a "high" note in more than one sense of the word.

High pressure to the south of Britain, with south-westerlies on its northern flank, produced high temperatures - a welcome taste of high summer. This was an extension of the fine spell that helped rescue an otherwise disappointing June, during its final week, from the doldrums. Unfortunately, it didn't last long.

As the anticyclone drifted away towards central Europe, a thundery low developed off Brittany, causing violent storms in the South.

The North missed the bulk of these downpours, but as the wind swung towards the east, fog, low cloud and drizzle came in from the North Sea. This initially plagued Tyneside from Wednesday the 4th, then the rest of us from the Thursday, apart from some favoured locations well inland. Here at Carlton, near Stokesley, this July will have the dubious record of the one, in my 18-years of data, with the most days with fog (three) at the official observing time of 10am.

Brighter weather arrived from the west as the wind backed into that direction on the Sunday. However, an autumnal-looking, Atlantic depression was already bearing down on us. This duly tracked east into England on the 10th and hung around for the rest of the week. This gave a breezy, showery period.

The following week saw almost a repeat performance. On Sunday the 15th, forecasters were predicting the next depression would cross southern England from the west. It looked as though our region would get a soaking around midweek due to the associated trough becoming stationary over us, combined with a brisk north-easterly off the North Sea.

In fact, the East Midlands and East Anglia took the brunt, with many places being soaked by five or six weeks' worth of normal rainfall. We, once more, largely got away with a few slight sprinkles, but with the breeze from the east, gradually backing northerly, it was again mostly cool and cloudy.

Yet another depression headed our way for the next week, but with high pressure building across France, it was pushed away to the north-west of Scotland. It became dry and sunnier, in good time for the school holidays. The mercury recovered almost daily, from a maximum of a mere 12 or 13C on Thursday the 18th, to about 25C a week later.

Temperatures during July picked-up to be on the warm side. The 2nd/3rd was the warmest July night in my records at Carlton, with a minimum of 19.2C, 67F. The night of the 28th/29th was almost as oppressive and also broke the previous record. On the other hand, a few spots had a touch of ground frost early on the 20th.

I was typical in the area in measuring at least a trace of rain on each day between the 5th and 21st, but of the falls, only one or two were substantial.

JULY TEMPERATURES & RAINFALL

at CARLTON in CLEVELAND

Mean max 20.1C, 68F (-0.2C, -0.3F)

Mean min 12.1C, 54F (+0.8C, +1.4F)

Highest max 26.3C, 79.5F, 4th & 28th

Lowest min 5.7C, 42F, 20th

Total rainfall 42mm, 1.65in (-4mm, -0.15in)

Wettest day 18mm, 0.7in, 14th

No of rain days, with 0.2mm (0.01in) or more 15 (+2)

(Figures in brackets show the difference from the 17-year mean, 1984-2000)