The expression “Flaming June” is beloved by headline writers, implying that the month traditionally brings tropical warmth. However, the phrase is not directly connected with the weather.
Flaming June is the title of Sir Frederic Leighton’s 1895 painting of a woman in an orange dress sleeping under a canopy in the summer heat. Leighton was thoroughly ambiguous: the woman has flame-red hair, and it is unclear whether June is her name, or if the scene takes place during June, or whether she is the personification of the month.
The painting was popular, with reproductions given away with The Graphic magazine. Victorian art fell out of fashion, and Flaming June allegedly wound up in a secondhand shop. When it was acquired for £2,000 by the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico in 1963 it soon became the most popular painting in their collection, and was reproduced worldwide.
The expression “Flaming June” entered the popular consciousness after the painting’s success. However, it does not describe the weather. In Britain, this month is often unsettled as a series of fronts roll in from the Atlantic, sometimes called the European Monsoon. June is generally cooler and wetter than July and August. Thanks to Leighton though, June will always be associated with drowsy summer heat.
