Wettest June sees double rainfall

This June was the wettest since records began, with double the average rain falling during the month, the Met Office said today.

Provisional figures showed the UK received 145.3mm (5.7 inches) during June, beating the previous record of 136.2mm (5.4 inches) seen in June 2007.

It is the second month this year to see record-breaking amounts of rain, after this April became the wettest in the records dating back more than a century to 1910.

June saw long, prolonged rainfall and short but exceptionally heavy showers, and ended with freak storms which battered areas of the Midlands and the North East.

The exceptional amount of rain caused floods in Wales and parts of England.

Last month was also the one of the dullest Junes on record, with just 119.2 hours sunshine, only slightly less miserable than June 1987 when a record low of 115.4 hours was recorded.

And the UK has experienced the coolest June since 1991, with average temperatures of 12.3C (54F).

"Movements in the track of the jet stream, a narrow band of fast-flowing westerly winds high in the atmosphere, have contributed to the weather we have seen," a Met Office spokesman said.

The past three months have seen lots of wet weather, with the period April to June also the wettest on record for the time of year. Only the second half of May saw a spell of prolonged fine weather.

Wales and Northern Ireland had their wettest June on record, England experienced the second wettest and even in Scotland - where the far north west was remarkably dry - it was the eighth wettest June in the records.

Many areas saw extremely high rainfall, with 83 out of 237 observation sites seeing records for rain broken.

The Met Office said new records for some of the individual sites were not significant as they had very short recording histories.

But others have been going for much longer, such as Otterbourne in Hampshire which has been operating for 119 years.

PA