June 2008 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Saint Cloud Weather Summary for June 2008

After a series of colder than normal months in February through May, June 2008 was just normal. The average June temperature, according to the statistics from the Saint Cloud Regional Airport, was 65.0°F, only 0.1°F cooler than normal. However, that is cooler than the past 3 Junes and 5 of the past 7 Junes. The remarkable thing about June temperatures is that they were extremely unremarkable. Only 2 of the 30 days had an average temperature more than 6 degrees from the daily normal value. There were no extremes (no highs of 90°F or more; no lows cooler than 49°F). In the past 20 years, there have only been two other years with no 90-degree highs through the end of June: 1993 and 2003. Both of those years had cooler Junes than this year. In 1993, we had a near normal July and a warm August, but in 2003, the temperature was cooler than normal all summer.

This year's lack of 90-degree highs is in sharp contrast to recent years. Between 2006 and 2007, there were 5 90-degree highs in May!

The June 2008 Saint Cloud rainfall was also nearly....average. The total Saint Cloud rainfall was 4.38 inches, just .13 inch below normal. However, the rainfall total was dominated by periodic heavy rain during the first two weeks of the month when 3.39 inches fell (normal: 2.25 inch). In fact, during the three-week period between May 24 and June 14, 5.11 inches fell in St. Cloud, nearly 2 inches above the 3.31 inches.

While there was significant rain in central Minnesota during the first half of June, heavier rains caused major early June flooding problems in northeastern Minnesota and southeastern Minnesota. On June 5-6, nearly 5 inches of rain fell on the harbor in Grand Marais. These heavy rains fell in a short period of time, resulting in significant flooding in Cook and Lake Counties. There was standing water in Grand Marais along Hwy. 61 and several county roads were washed out. The following week, there were two major rainfalls in southeastern Minnesota, which produced major flooding in Austin, along the Turtle and Dobbins Creek and the Cedar and Root Rivers. These rainstorms were the last of the series that caused the major flooding in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri.

The forecast outlook for the start of July shows central Minnesota continuing to alternate between slightly cooler than normal weather and warmer than normal weather. The reason is that the steering winds will continue to alternate between straight west-to-east flow near the Canadian border (bringing us warmer weather) and northwest flow from central Canada giving us our cool downs. The big heat will continue to dominate the Southwest and the West Coast. We will have a chance of tasting that hot air from time to time, but whether we break into the 90's on any given day will depend on where the thunderstorms set up when the warm air approaches.

    June 2008 Statistics