June 2013 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Cold and Wet June Is Half Right

June 2013 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

It may have seemed that the cold and wet spring just continued another month into June. The wet part was right, although the heavy rain was concentrated in a mid-month 5-day outbreak of storms. The cool part, however, lasted just the first two weeks of the month.

Rainy June Fueled By Severe June 20-24 Storms

June 2013 continued the rainy trend seen early in the spring. There were 5.76 inches of rain at the St. Cloud Regional Airport in June. That exceeded the June average by 1.59 inches, but it was well short of breaking into St. Cloud's rainiest Junes. The heaviest rainfall was during the four-day period of June 20-23.The St. Cloud Airport picked up 3.42 inches during this time and The average rainfall for the entire month of June is 4.17 inches.

There was even more rain during June 20-24 in surrounding areas. Glenwood recorded 6.11 inches, the north end of Little Rock Lake had 5.37 inches, Long Prairie had 5.12 inches, Milaca had 4.84 inches, Melrose had 4.75 inches, SCSU had 4.61 inches, Mora had 4.26 inches, Kimball had 4.04 inches, Collegeville had 3.90 inches, and Willmar had 3.86 inches. In general, there were a widespread 3-6 inches of rain throughout central Minnesota. This led to some localized flooding during the rain.

The most notable weather event in central Minnesota was the straight-line wind damage event on the morning of June 21. As this line of storms pushed west-to-east across central Minnesota, wind gusts reached 85 MPH in Benson, 68 MPH in Morris, and over 60 MPH at Buffalo (66 MPH), Paynesville (64 MPH), and Princeton (60 MPH). The St. Cloud Airport had a gust of 53 MPH. Numerous branches were torn off trees, and large trees were both snapped and partially uprooted. Barden Park and the south end of Musinger Gardens were hard hit. There were over 19,000 electric customers in the St. Cloud area who lost power for 2-3 days. This was not to be confused with another outbreak of straight-line damaging winds that hit from the Twin Cities southeastward that night. Strong winds of 55-60 MPH also hit western and southern Stearns County from Belgrade and Avon to Richmond. The combined effect knocked out power to about 600,000 customers in Minnesota.

The most recent direct hit of similar straight-line wind damage was July 1, 2011, part of an outbreak that spread from north of Sioux Falls into northern Wisconsin. There was a small tornado touchdown in western St. Cloud and a large amount of wind damage from north St. Cloud into Sauk Rapids and Sartell.

Since the start of April, St. Cloud has picked up 13.64 inches of precipitation, nearly four inches above the April-June average of 9.69 inches. That has wiped out the last remnants of drought conditions left over from last year's dry summer and fall. This week's US Drought Monitor shows only a small area of north central Minnesota showing drier than average conditions, thanks to growing season rainfall of 2-12 inches above normal in the southern two-thirds of the state.

This rainy pattern continued across North America from southern Alberta through Minnesota and to the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic States. Flooding was notable in several areas with southern Alberta experiencing the worst flooding on record.

Near Average June (Cold First Half, Warm and Sticky Finish)

June temperatures at the St. Cloud Airport may have seemed to be a continuation of the cool weather seen the previous 4 months, but it actually ended up close to average. The June average St. Cloud temperature ended up being 65.1°F, only 0.5°F cooler than average.

The cool conditions were concentrated in the first two weeks of the month, which had no day with a a high warmer than 78°F. The average temperature for June 1-14 was 59.0°F (avg. high 68.0°F, avg. low 49.9°F), cold enough to be the 5th coolest June if that weather had kept up for the rest of the month. During June 15-30, the average temperature was 70.5°F (avg. high 82.1°F, avg. low 59.0°F), warm enough to tie for the 8th warmest June if that had lasted the whole month.

There were 11 days with a high of at least 80°F in St. Cloud during June 2013. None of these days occurred in the first two weeks of the month. However, there were fewer days with an 80-degree high in 2011 (6 days), 2010 (9 days), and 2008 (10 days). Since 1892, the fewest June days with an 80-degree high was set in 1915 (2 days). There were only 3 80-degree days in June 1928, 1947, and 1969.

Start of July?

Our dry period looks to continue for the first week of July as weather systems stall. However, the pattern of storms along the Northern Tier of states and southern Canada could resume by late in the week, meaning that our wet and seasonably cool conditions are likely to resume.

    June 2013 Statistics