Last month was also a far cry from June last year which, with an average temperature of 26 degrees C, was a good three degrees warmer.

However this is no reason for speculation that this is going to be a cool summer as seasonal predictions from the major climatic model centres do not give a consistent forecast scenario.

The highest temperature reached last month was 32.3 degrees C, recorded on 26 June. The highest June temperature ever recorded since records began in 1947 at Malta International Airport was 40.1 deg C on 13 June 1997.

On the very first day of the month the thermometer reached its lowest point at 15.6 deg C. At the same time, very close to the ground, at grass height, the lowest temperature there was 11 deg C.

The coolest June night since records began was that of 7 June 1975 when the temperature hit a low of 12.6 deg C.

Three millimetres of rain were measured at the airport – this is about two millimetres more than the average for the month. The wettest June since 1947 was that of 1968 with 28.2mm. Thunder was heard for a good part of the night on Sunday 13 June.

The average wind speed last month was 7.3 knots (8mph or 13 kilometres per hour) and the highest gust reached 35 knots (40mph or 65 kilometres per hour) from the west-

southwest on 17 June. The highest gust ever reached at the Malta International Airport in June was 46 knots (53mph or 85 kilometres per hour) on two occasions; one in 1951 from a northwesterly direction and the other in 1962 from an easterly direction.

The most frequent wind direction was the north-northwest.

Around dawn on 16 June the visibility at the airport went down to 150 metres in dense fog.

We had 36 minutes of sunshine a day more than the average for June – the sunniest day being the 19th with 13 hours and 24 minutes and the dullest was the 12th with 3 hours and 36 minutes of sunshine.