WELCOMING in June, the promise of warmer weather echoed a promise of sunny days ahead for a Hull FC team on a five-match winning streak.
The dizzy heights of a seasonal high fourth in the table, as well as a Challenge Cup quarter-final place, was rich reward for a run of nine wins from 10 games.
Four weeks later and the KC is cast in a gloomy shadow.
Winless since ending a memorable May with a home win against Leeds, the manner of Hull's performances, as much as the results, have soured the taste of summer.
The eternal problem of raising expectations is the unavoidable fall that follows.
The key is to make sure when those trip-ups arrive they are just that, and not a plummet of potentially harmful proportions.
Three straight defeats, albeit two of those by narrow margins, feel like a heavy fall for a Hull side that has no option but to dust itself down and get up fighting.
Confidence can be the most frustrating of traits. Wonderful when you have it, but so easy to lose. Trudging off the field on Monday after being beaten by Wakefield, Hull looked a side bereft of confidence.
The key ingredient to their ascent up the table was a squad playing some of their best rugby, with a team littered with in-form players.
Their descent has unsurprisingly followed with those same players nowhere near the levels they were achieving just weeks ago.
Errors in attack, combined with ill discipline, have put too much pressure on a defence now buckling under the weight of possession being thrown at them.
Individual errors in defence have also proven costly, while the intensity and structure without the ball has also fallen away.
Fixing the problem won't be easy, but respecting the ball better is key. Handing teams simple possession within sight of their own try line is killing Hull and the mistakes are proving more costly because of the areas of the field they are made.
Beaten up through the middle by Catalan and Castleford and cut to shreds on the edges by Wakefield, Hull need to improve defensively.
It's encouraging FC are trying to play with width, something which brought success during their impressive run of results. But as one commentator pointed out against Wakefield, with strong running back row forwards such as Danny Tickle, Ben Galea and Gareth Ellis, Hull could do to simplify their approach by playing on the edges of the ruck and sacrificing width for a go forward.
With an all-important cup tie looming large, addressing their form is even more imperative. And yet, maybe that same cup tie has contributed to the problem.
The closer the cup game looms, the more Hull's form has been erratic.
Peter Gentle and Adam Pearson have made it clear the importance they've placed on the tie.
The league has almost become a sideshow, but with a home tie in the play-offs slowly slipping from their grasp, Hull's focus cannot afford to be on anything but beating Huddersfield on Sunday.
It's no easy task given the Giants' form, yet the Black and Whites have the talent to succeed.
Therein lies the frustration. Hull are a far better side than they are showing, and now they must win six of their last seven to match last season's points total.
Too many senior players are not performing, and that will be Gentle's biggest concern.
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