Rainbows across the UK – in “Flaming Jun4”!
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I have often wondered why, to my meteorological consternation, the month of June is called, “Flaming June”?
It is never ever anything like this – always rains, damn cold and damp and sometimes needing to put the central heating back on – IN JUNE?!!!?. Right now the temperature is just a paltry 13 degrees Celsius (63 degrees Fahrenheit). We have had warmer days in winter!
Any rate, some nice rainbow clouds to enjoy:-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/weatherwatchers/article/40186823/gallery-radiant-rainbows
Laurence
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The reason why June often has weather more akin to winter than summer – in the UK at least – is that according to CEP Brooks ‘English Climate’ June 1st is the average starting date for the European Monsoon. I first read this book in the spring of 1964 and when I reached the section on this feature, I was somewhat worried as I was due to go on holiday in Skegness for the first week of June. I hoped I might be lucky as this monsoon is unreliable and its start date can be up to a fortnight either side of the average. However, as luck would have it, the end of May was a classic start for the monsoon with heat building and reaching around 27C as I set off for the coast.
The European Monsoon typically begins with a breakdown of the late spring heat over Europe with cold NW’ly winds sweeping in off the Atlantic. The first week is often the coldest and is followed by a weeks respite but with a return to colder weather in the third week.
During my week at Skegness I wore a pullover and jacket every day. The only day that I didn’t wear a raincoat over that lot was on the Wednesday, the only dry day of the week when I think the temperature may have reached a balmy 10C. On the Saturday that we left, the forecast for that day was for snow showers over high ground in the north. My recollection is that maximum temperatures at RAE Bedford were in single figures on some days during that first week and that happened again during the third week after a milder second week
One famous example of a cold start to June was Coronation Day on 2nd June 1953 when it was bitterly cold with pouring rain. That was the occasion when the Queen of Tonga earned great credit from the watching public by braving the elements in an open-topped carriage.
On another June 2nd in 1975, a Monday, heavy snow fell across East Anglia on the rear of a cold front. Radio broadcasts warned motorists of the ‘blizzard’ conditions and to drive with headlights on. The snow was heavy enough for it to settle, even with the heat in the ground at that time of year. This may have been helped by a short burst of hail on the front itself insulating the snow from the warmth below. I drove through the area to the rear of the snow as sun was breaking through the overcast and saw snow covering roofs of houses and still half-covering lawns. I later heard from someone who’d witnessed the event from a first-floor (2nd floor for our US brethren) store window in Bury St Edmunds and estimated the roads and pavements (sidewalks) to have been covered with a couple of inches of snow. I recall the maximum temperature that day and the next were 7C. On Thursday of that week it turned warm and that marked the start of the long, hot summer of that year (and, one might say, the next, as the dry weather continued through the winter and didn’t break until August 1976).
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Hi Graham
Thanks kindly for the detailed reply and the useful information contained in it. It is appreciated. I have learnt some useful things here.
Thanks again and best wishes.
Laurence
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