June 2000 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

DATE: 3 July 2000


SUBJECT: Cool temperatures partially offset continued dryness
		June 2000 St. Cloud weather summary

After all of the talk about global warming, St. Cloud didn't get much warming when it's expected to be hot. The June 2000 average temperature at the St. Cloud Municipal Airport was 62.2 degrees, more than two and a half degrees below normal. This made June 2000 the coolest June since 1993, the year of the persistent clouds associated with the Missouri and Missippippi River floods. June also was the second month of the past three with a below normal temperature. Only the weekend of June 7-10 felt like a summer month as temperatures broke 90 degrees twice and tied a record on the 9th. From then on, the high temperature only broke 80 three times and never exceeded 85 degrees.

Despite seemingly endless rainfall, St. Cloud only recorded 3.10 inches of rain for the month, which is 1 1/2 inches below normal. There were 15 days with measurable rainfall, which exceeds the average June total of 11 days, but 9 days had rainfall of less than .15 inch. This low total brings the growing season rainfall to only a touch over 7 inches, more than 3 inches below normal. The cooler temperatures helped a bit by reducing the moisture lost to evaporation, but the usable moisture deficit from last fall has continued well into the 2000 growing season.

Overall, the cool conditions were caused by an unusual southern position to the storm track for much of the month. This pattern set up many storms over Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and southern Missouri, which has greatly helped to ease the severe drought conditions of the winter and spring in those areas. However, as noted by the flooding rains in the Fargo-Moorhead area and those in southeastern Minnesota, rain has often hit Minnesota. St. Cloud's dryness is typical of a swath in Central Minnesota bounded approximately by Wheaton, Ortonville, Moose Lake, and North Branch. In between those four points, rainfall has been below normal and less than 75% of normal in a patch which includes much of Stearns, Wright, and Sherburne Counties.

JUNE STATISTICS                  JUNE 2000              NORMAL
TEMPERATURE ( F)
Average high temp                 74.4                   77.4
Average low temp                  49.9                   52.2
Average temp                      62.2                   64.8
Hottest high temp for the month   94 on the 9th (tied record; see below)
Coolest high temp for the month   53 on the 4th
Warmest low temp for the month    61 on the 20th
Coolest low temp for the month    36 on the 5th 
Records:                          
        Daily warm high:          94 on the 9th (tied record set in 1973, 1976)
        Daily cold high:          62 on the 15th (tied record set in 1926, 1974)


PRECIPITATION (IN)              JUNE 2000              NORMAL
Total for month                   3.10                  4.60
Maximum daily amount              .72 on the 13th
Growing Season (Apr 1-Jun 30)     7.07                 10.11