JUNE turned out to be a good, mainly dry, warm, sunny month. In fact, it was the warmest since that very hot summer of 1976 and the sunniest since 1996.

The last day of the month had to spoil it all when we had 20mm (nearly 1in) of rain, to send the rainfall to 65mm (2.6in) and that was 8mm above my 25-year average. Until then we only had 45mm (1.8in) for the whole month.

Total rainfall for the year so far is 295mm (11.8in) which is still 59mm (2.36in) below average. This time last year we already had 415mm (16.6in) - nearly 5in more.

So far, this year has been an excellent one apart from May, so let's hope it keeps going for the summer months at least.

As I said earlier, last month was the warmest since 1976, as reported on TV. Here, our highest temperature averaged 21.03C (70F), easily the highest in my records, but mine only go back to 1990. Since then we have only broken the 20C barrier twice, that was 20.6C in 1993 and 20.34C in 1992.

July is generally a warmer month than June and since 1990 June temperatures have averaged 18.4C and July is 21.8C, that is 3.4C higher, which should be some more good news to look forward to. But then it is all downhill after that.

The warmest days last month were June 16 and June 21, reaching 25C (77F). Having said that, we are having a good dry year so far. We have to go back six years to 1997 to find a year when we have had below our average rainfall of 747mm (29.88in). In 1997 we had 686mm (27.44in). The year before that was even drier at 641mm (25.64in). It was also a dry year in 1995 with 684mm (27.36in). The three years before that were all wet and all above average. As I have said many times, the weather runs in cycles and we must be due for a run of dry years now, as we have just had a run of five of the wettest years ever recorded, since records began some 300-years ago.

Days of note in July: St Mary's Day, July 2, when it is said that if it rains on St Mary's Day it will rain for a month. Not to worry as it was a dry day with good sunny spells.

St Swithin's Day, July 15 , "Oh, St Swithin if thou'll be fair, for forty days shall rain nae mair, but if St. Swithin's thou be wet, for forty days it raineth yet".

This is easily the most famous and most notorious weather day of the year, especially with farmers. Many farmers will believe and tell you that if it rains on St Swithin's Day it will rain for the next 40 days.