June 2011 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

June Statistics Don't Really Show Cool, Wet Weather

Saint Cloud Weather Summary for June 2011

To those of us living through it, June 2011 in Saint Cloud was mostly a continuation of the frustrating cool and wet weather that had dominated parts of April and May. However, because of intense heat early and late, temperatures ended up being near normal. Because a line of thunderstorms that produced flooding in much of St. Cloud was in a narrow band, it mostly missed the St. Cloud Airport, keeping rainfall totals down.

Near Normal Temperatures Despite A Long Drought of 80-Degree Highs

The average temperature for the month at the St. Cloud Regional Airport was 65.3 degrees, 0.2 degrees warmer than normal. This is despite a streak of 21 days (June 8-28) in which high temperatures did not reach 80 degrees. That was longer than any June streak without an 80-degree through 1997.

However, an intense heat blast of two days on June 6-7 produced a pair of 90+ degree highs, including the high of 101 degrees on June 7, the third earliest 100-degree high in the season. The only earlier 100-degree-plus highs were set in May : 100 degrees on May 28, 1934, and 105 degrees on May 31, 1934.

These 100-degree highs are rare events in St. Cloud. Yesterday was only the 59th day since 1896 that the temperature has hit 100 degrees. Only 10 of those days have occurred since 1950. Seven of those 10 days in the second half of the 20th century happened during the hot summer of 1988.

That 101 degree high temperature destroyed the June 7 record high temperature of 96 degrees , set in 2004. It was also the hottest temperature seen in St. Cloud since the 101 degree high on July 31, 2006 . The last temperature at St. Cloud that was warmer was the 102 degrees set on July 31, 1988. The 101 high was also a degree short of the hottest June temperature on record : 102 degrees on June 24, 1988, and June 28, 1931. To see a temperature hotter than 102 degrees, you have to go back more than 60 years August 10, 1947, the last time St. Cloud hit 103 degrees.

This was the third earliest 100 degree temperature of the year in St Cloud records. would be the third earliest triple-digit high temperature on record. There has never been a 100-degree high in June earlier than June 28, but there have been two So, yesterday had the earliest triple digit high of the past 75 years.

Temperatures were as hot as 103 at the Twin Cities International Airport , breaking a record. Eau Claire also set a new record high with 100 degrees.

June 7's high temperature was part of a "triple play" of record temperatures. The low of 69 tied the June 7 record warm low set in 1959 and 1968. The average temperature (average of high and low) was 85 degrees, breaking the record warm average temperature for June 7. The old record was 82 degrees, set in 2004.

During the following 21 days, the high temperature was never warmer than 78 degrees and did not reach 70 degrees on 5 days. However, St. Cloud finished the month with heat advisories as temperatures broke 90 for the third time of the month and the fourth time during the summer on June 30. That day included a low above 70 degrees. While St. Cloud averages 11-12 days with a high of at least 90 degrees , we experience only 3 days with a low of at least 70 degrees per year.

Airport Misses Flooding Rains of June 21, Ends Up With Below Normal June Rainfall

The St. Cloud Regional Airport picked up only 2.87 inches of rain in June, 1.64 inches less than normal for the month. The main reason for this apparent shortfall is that the Airport mostly missed the heavy afternoon rain storm on June 21.

Between 4 and 5 PM on June 21, a slow moving line of thunderstorms moved from the southeast into a northwest-southeast line through Waite Park and western and central St. Cloud, but only sideswiped the east side. T he St. Cloud Municipal Airport only reported 0.06 inch during the afternoon between 4 and 7 PM , but the SCSU rain gauge picked up 2.33 inches. A severe weather spotter also noted 2 inches of rainfall just south of Hasty in only 12 minutes.

Since there were also heavy showers and thunderstorms earlier that morning, SCSU picked up a total of 2.74 inches of rain in 24 hours, the 11th heaviest rainfall in the 20 years of SCSU rain reports and the heaviest since last year's 3.16 inches on August 12-13. Because the storm was so slow-moving, there was another rainy day to come on June 22, which dumped .86 inch on the Airport, t ying the June 22 record rainfall . The St. Cloud Airport did end up with 1.40 inches of rain during June 21-23, but SCSU had a total of 3.48 inches during those three days, part of the swath of 1 1/2 to 3 inch rainfalls that cut from Benton through much of eastern and southern Stearns County during the week of June 21-27.

This band of thunderstorms also produced a brief tornado touchdown in Blaine and Coon Rapids .

Since SCSU got the heavy rain, its June total rainfall was nearly double the Airport reading with 5.36 inches.

In frequency of rain events, June slowed down from the spring pace. There were 11 days with measurable rainfall in St. Cloud during June and 7 days with at least 0.10 inch of rainfall. Those are normal frequencies for the rain amounts. Still, because of the near record pace of light rainfalls during the year so far, the 69 days in 2011 so far with measurable precipitation is the 6th highest total in St. Cloud records . The 36 days with at least 0.10 inch of rainfall is the 7th highest total in St. Cloud records. The frequent rainfall had kept area fields wet with 50% of all topsoil in Minnesota ranked with surplus moisture as of the June 27 report.

While rainfall was frequent, severe weather was fortunately a lot more rare than last year. The state of Minnesota set a tornado record during the year with a record outbreak of 48 tornadoes on June 17, including 3 EF-4 tornadoes .

     June 2011 Statistics