That’s how cold it’s been for the first half of June. There’ll be no gaslighting us this time. Come the end of the month, if we’re told it was the ‘hottest ever’ or even just ‘warmer than average’, there will be uproar. Because at present there is no sign of a return to any serious warmth and more settled weather as far out as late June. This is the current mean Central England temperature and anomaly:
12.2C. That places it as the 10th coldest June since records began.
As you can see, very cold June months are not rare in the latter half of the 20th century (1972, 1977 and 1991 were even colder), but there have been none so far in the 21st century. Of course, things change. It may get slightly warmer, or the Met Office might decide that it is just too embarrassingly cold in the Era of Global Boiling and they may start to look for more appropriate temperatures measured on jet engine runways in order to bump up the mean.
But people are not going to forget this very chilly start to the month and they are not going to take kindly to any gaslighting by the media and/or the Met Office at the end of the month similar to what we have witnessed with the very dreary, cold, wet ‘hottest ever’ spring. The weather so far this year in the UK (and indeed across western Europe and Scandinavia) has been decidedly cool, unsettled and wet. Not what we were told to expect when Europe is supposedly warming at twice the pace of the rest of the planet:
Temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average in the last 30 years, according to a report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The effects of this warming are already being seen, with droughts, wildfires and ice melts taking place across the continent. The European State of the Climate report, produced with the EU’s Copernicus service, warns that as the warming trend continues, exceptional heat, wildfires, floods and other climate breakdown outcomes will affect society, economies and ecosystems.
Hot summers especially were supposed to be much more likely:
Climate change is raising the odds of summer heatwaves in Europe by a factor of 10, according to new research from the Met Office. Over the past 10 to 15 years, the likelihood of a ‘very hot’ summer has risen – from once every 50 years to once every five years.
As the frequency of heatwaves increases, so do risks to human health. Improving resilience to high temperatures is critical to avoiding deaths caused by extended periods of hot weather, the authors say.
Tell me about it:
This was my humble abode on a flaming June evening just recently:
Update June 13th:
June 2024 has now moved into joint 9th coldest with June 1977.
Update 14th June:
The mean CET updated to the 13th of June is now 11.9C, with an anomaly of -2.2. This means that for nearly half the month now, it has been on a par with the 5th coldest June since 1659! It has been a phenomenally cold start to June, really very exceptional. Just let them try to claim at the month’s end that it has been the hottest ever!
Here in Hertfordshire it’s 2 jumpers on in the evening and sometimes a blanket too to keep comfortable. Still, got to remain cheerful - Mr Millipede will soon be in charge of our heating systems so all good.
South Lincolnshire, cold and wet on the whole. The fire hasn't been aloud to go out. We are visiting the coal ( replacement ) yard regularly.