AFTER the brilliant May had given us high expectations, we had to wait until the last week of June for another taste of summer.

The weather had already started to deteriorate at the end of May, and June began with a series of small depressions running south-eastwards across or near to Scotland, with one every other day or so.

Associated fronts were mostly weak, and with the shelter of the mountains from the mostly north-westerly winds, little rain resulted in our part of the country.

There were two exceptions to this when more active lows tracked into the North Sea via the Tees estuary. These produced prolonged rain, heavy at times, on both Wednesday the 6th and the following Saturday. Thundery showers, a few with hail, also occurred between these dates.

The weather pattern began to change during the second week, as quite a deep depression slowly approached Cornwall from the south-west. This pushed fronts northwards across Britain, reaching us by the evening of Thursday the 14th.

Some of the accompanying downpours were in the torrential category. Leeming was inundated with 51mm (2in), the usual ration for a month, in just three hours on the Friday afternoon.

As the low moved away into the continent over the weekend, a brisk northerly was pulled down behind it. The Saturday was particularly miserable with thick drizzle all day, as well as the odd deluge, especially in the east of the region. A passing ridge of high pressure then toppled across Britain from the Azores. This brought mild, humid air for a couple of days around the middle of the following week.

Cool north-westerlies made a quick return as pressure once again built to the west of Britain. Early on the 18th, as the wind died out, clearing skies led to one of the latest ground frosts I've known.

Over the next few days, the resulting anticyclone moved east into the North Sea, and the breeze switched into the south by Sunday the 24th. The mercury soared into the mid-20s celsius (mid-70s fahrenheit), making it the warmest day so far this year. The wind was strong enough to keep sea-breezes at bay, so it was just as balmy on the coast, though, not as scorching as in southern England where one or two spots reached 32C (90F).

In keeping with the traditional British summer, the fine weather soon started to break down, as a thundery "plume" (low pressure area) drifted north from Spain. Hefty showers broke out widely, but, in the North-East, they were very few and far between. For the last four days, a brisk south-westerly took control, which meant for our area, it remained warm and with mainly no more than an odd sprinkle of rain.

After a dull, wet and cool first half, there was, disappointingly, only a modest improvement in sunshine. However, it became mostly dry after the 16th, so rainfall was generally near average, although, as is often the case in summer, this depended on whether or not you caught the worst of the cloudbursts scattered throughout the month.

Also, temperatures almost recovered to the normal, thanks to the final week.

JUNE TEMPERATURES &

RAINFALL AT

CARLTON IN CLEVELAND

Mean max 17.3C, 63F (-0.1C, -0.2F)

Mean min 8.8C, 48F, (-0.2C, -0.4F)

Highest 24.8C, 76.5F, 25th

Lowest 1.9C, 35.5F, 3rd

Total rainfall 69mm, 2.7in, (+8mm, +0.3in)

Wettest day 20mm, 0.8in, 9th

No of rain days, with 0.2mm (0.01in) or more 10 (-4)

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

l Note: my site is now one of many featured on the Yorkshire Weather web-site, courtesy of Rob Overfield. The web site address is http://go.just.to/yorkshireweather.