Chilly ‘Junuary’ in fact had more sunshine than average for the time of year, the Met Office has claimed. The Telegraph has more.
June was marked by its relatively cool start, with temperatures 2°C below average for the time of year during its first two weeks. But sunshine hours were up 12% in England and 4% for the U.K. compared with the average June.
Despite the cooler start to the month, heatwave temperatures in the last two weeks pushed overall June temperatures up to only 0.4°C below the long-term average.
Temperatures in the first two weeks of June were below average because of cold Arctic air being blown across the U.K. by northerly winds, a Met Office spokesperson said.
Could there be anything unreliable about the latest surprising claims? The Telegraph suggests there might be:
The Met Office measures sunshine using either the Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder, invented in the 19th century, or modern sunshine sensors.
The Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder, which is being phased out, uses a glass sphere to focus the sun’s direct radiation on a graduated card. The Met Office says the method can significantly overestimate sunshine duration on cloudy days. Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorders are still in use at many of the 140 manual climate stations [out of around 400 total stations] it operates.
It comes after controversy last month when the Met Office claimed damp and chilly May was the “warmest on record”.
Who are you going to believe, the Met Office or your own lying eyes?
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