June air and sea temperatures were significantly higher than normal
There was no rain at all last month
June was warmer than normal and also sunnier than the norm, the Meteorological Office said on Tuesday.
The average air temperature was 26.3°C, a remarkable 2.3 °C above the climatic norm.
The hottest day was June 9, with a temperature of 35.6°C, while the coolest was the first, when a temperature of 15.8°C was recorded.
The start of the astronomical summer also brought with it the first heatwave of the season, lasting four days between June 24 and 27.
A hot period is considered to have reached heatwave status when the average maximum temperature is at least 5°C higher than the monthly norm (in this case 28.8°C) for three or more days.
Temperatures reached 34.2°C on June 24, 35.3°C on the 25th, 35°C on the 26th and 35.2°C on June 27, respectively.
Surface sea temperature
The mean sea surface temperature reached 25.1°C in June, which was well above the climatic norm of 22°C.
The start of summer also brought with it a dramatic increase in sunshine, with June seeing an increase of 40.2 hours of bright sunshine above the norm throughout the month, the office said. In total, there were 374.3 hours of bright sunshine, with the climatic norm usually at 334.1 hours.
That meant an average of 12.5 hours of bright sunshine per day last month, or roughly 1.3 hours of daylight more than the norm per day.
The brightest day of the month was the 2nd of June, which experienced 13.4 hours of bright sunshine, while the dullest was the 20th, which only saw 8.1 hours of bright sunshine.
With higher-than-average temperatures and brighter and longer days, June was also unseasonably dry, measuring absolutely no precipitation, where it usually accumulates 5.8mm.
Wind was also somewhat more diminished than the norm in June with the average windspeed measuring 5.6 knots, which was lower than the climatic norm of 7.6 knots. The highest maximum gust was seen on the 4th of June, when an east-southeast wind blew at 22 knots.