'Extreme' June? Not so much in North Idaho
June was another month of “extremes” across the globe. However, here in North Idaho, conditions overall were close to normal.
Last month, our average high was 75 degrees with an average low of 52. So far, we’ve had just one 90-degree day, which was on June 13. We also had some cool weather as the high on June 27 was only 60 degrees.
In terms of precipitation, we ended up below normal as Cliff measured 1.62 inches last month. The June average for rainfall is 1.93 inches. For July, we’ve had a scant .19 inches of moisture. On average, this is our driest month with .92 inches of rain.
For the rest of July, we may see a few showers or a thunderstorm, but unless we get one of those downpours from a thunderstorm, conditions are expected to end up drier than normal once again.
Temperatures have been fairly pleasant this summer season with highs mostly in the 70s and 80s. Cliff and I think the best chance for hot weather will be around late July or early August. Conditions should also stay drier than normal through the early to mid portion of August, then precipitation should start to increase a bit. The fall of 2019 does look a little wetter than normal.
Although our summer season still looks drier than average, it shouldn’t be as dry as the summers of 2017 and 2018. Last July, only 0.04 inches of rain fell. The dry weather continued for most of August until we received a half-inch of rain on Aug. 27. With little moisture and hot temperatures, North Idaho, as well as much of the western U.S., suffered through one of the worst fire seasons in history. Let’s hope the rest of this year will be different.
Our extreme weather pattern, however, still persists across much of the world. Last month, a massive heatwave broke high temperature records in parts of Germany, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. On June 26, a town in southern France endured the hottest temperature ever recorded in the country with a reading of an incredible 114.6 degrees. The previous record was set by another town in southern France in 2003 with a high of 111.4 degrees.
June was Europe’s hottest month on record, and the intense heat led to wildfires in Spain that burned over 16,000 acres. One of the forecasters for France’s meteorological agency stated that more than a dozen locations went over the 110-degree mark during that massive heatwave.
According to European forecasters, the intense heatwave at the end of last month helped raise global average temperatures to record levels. The information was based upon satellite data.
As the heat diminished in Europe, it then turned hot in Alaska. Over the July 4th holiday weekend, temperatures in the southern portions of the state warmed into the 80s and lower 90s. Anchorage hit 90 degrees on July 4, breaking its record by 5 degrees set back in 1969. Many heat records were broken in Alaska last week as readings were over 20 degrees above average.
Record heat was also reported in Delhi, India, as the mercury hit 118 degrees last month. A town west of India’s capital had a high of 123 degrees. By the way, the hottest temperature ever recorded happened at Death Valley on July 10, 1913: 134.1 degrees.
Far West also had some record-breaking heat last month. On June 12, Seattle smashed its record of 85 degrees by 10 degrees with a high of 95. The previous day, it was another record high, 87 degrees. Portland hit 97 on June 12, and Eugene came within 1 degree of the century mark with a high of 99. On June 10, normally cool San Francisco soared to 100 degrees. In the deserts of Southern California, Thermal reported a high of 113 degrees on that day.
Another weather extreme happened in Mexico on July 1. A freak hailstorm hit Guadalajara and dropped nearly 7 “feet” of ice pellets. There are pictures of cars buried in ice. Residents said they’d never seen anything like it.
In the U.S., heat alerts were issued last week for temperatures in the 90s across the southern portions of the central U.S. and heat indexes near 110 degrees.
By contrast, snow fell on the first day of summer in the mountains of Colorado. The state’s snowpack was more than 40 times normal for this time of year. In fact, during the last weekend of June, there was more than 2 feet of new snow in Steamboat Springs, Colo. Snow also fell in Bozeman, Mont. on June 20.
The northern parts of the U.S., as well as southern Canada, did experience some chilly weather last month. Montreal broke cold records on June 3. According to The Weather Channel, some cities in the northern Great Plains had their coldest January through June in decades.
Based on current patterns, it doesn’t look like these “extremes” will end anytime soon.
- • •
Contact Randy Mann at randy@longrangeweather.com