June 2023 was the hottest in England since 1846 – here's why it was so unusual
Retrieved on:
Friday, June 30, 2023
Warm or hot weather was persistent in the UK throughout most of June 2023, with temperatures peaking at 32°C in parts of south-east England.
Key Points:
- Warm or hot weather was persistent in the UK throughout most of June 2023, with temperatures peaking at 32°C in parts of south-east England.
- Although well short of last July’s record 40°C, for large parts of England the last time June was this hot was in 1846 – almost 180 years ago.
- The CET series draws on records from a roughly triangular area bounded by Lancashire, London and Bristol.
- And with the sun at its highest elevation in the year, plentiful sunshine meant temperatures rose quickly.
Hot Junes were rare during the last 150 years
- For some reason, very warm or hot Junes have been almost absent within the last 150 years, although they were much more common up to the middle of the 19th century.
- You have to go back another 170 years to find one as hot, June 1676, when temperatures averaged 18.0°C.
- The next three hottest Junes tie with a mean CET of 16.9°C: 1762, 1798 and 1976.
- That last entry was the most recent in the top ten of all-time hottest Junes until this year.
- June temperatures that year were actually fairly close to average until an exceptional hot spell set in during the closing week.
Will temperatures remain high in July?
- Of the months with the highest June mean temperature (1676, 1762, 1798, 1822, 1826, 1846 and 1976), only the summers of 1826 and 1976 remained hot.
- So, if the historical record is anything to go by, we may have already seen the hottest weeks of summer 2023.
- Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue.