State Climatologist Justin Glisan says the month of June ended up being a little on the warm side.
“The statewide average temperature, we were about 71.7 degrees, and that’s nearly two degrees above average,” Glisan says.
But, he says it took about half of June before the heat really took over.
“We started the month off actually near normal to slightly cooler than average and then we get into the middle of the month and the atmospheric furnace turned on,” Glisan says. “And we had a stretch of days in the 80s and 90s with dew points up in the 70s and 80s.”
June also went against the norm in many areas of the state when it comes to precipitation. “June is the wettest month climatologically for the northern two-thirds of the state. And we were about an inch and a half below average. The statewide average was about three and three-quarters of an inch,” according to Glisan. “So that’s pretty dry when you’re considering it’s the wettest month and… we saw drought expansion: D-1, D-2 and even the introduction of D-3 drought in the northwestern corner, and then some abnormally dry conditions creeping into the southwest and in eastern Iowa.”
Glisan also says the potential for wetter conditions in July could help with some of the expansion of the drought conditions that occurred in June.
Reporting by Pat Powers for Radio Iowa
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