June 1998 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Saint Cloud had to wait until the start of summer to experience its
first colder than normal month of the year. June 1998 in Saint Cloud turned
out to be the first below normal temperature month since November 1997.
Temperatures averaged 63.3 degrees overall, 2.0 degrees below normal. This
was mainly due to the average high temperature of 73.6 degrees being 3.8
degrees below normal. The cool June was mainly driven by some very cold
readings in early June. In fact, the high temperature did not break above
75 degrees until the 13th with two days (5th and 6th) not even having a
high of 60 degrees. This cool spell early in the month was largely the
result of the last of the arctic air in the Northern Hemisphere
moving over Minnesota and slowly warming over us.

June 1998 was the coolest June since the Junes of 1992 and 1993,
both of which began extraordinarily cool summers throughout the United States.
Those cool summers in the early part of the decade were greatly a result of
suspended dust in the atmosphere from the eruption of the Mount Pinatubo
volcano in the Phillipines.

The second half of June 1998 was cloud and storm dominated as
Minnesota became the battle ground between the cooler air over Minnesota and
the severe heat and humidity which has held a strangle hold on the Southern
Plains since May. The clash of the two air masses resulted in 4.28 inches
of rain, still below the normal amount of 4.60 inches, but the most June
rainfall since 1993 and only the fourth year since 1986 in which the June
rainfall has exceeded 4 inches.

Still, the Saint Cloud area escaped much of the heaviest rainfall,
including the high precipiation totals which led to flooding on the 26th.
The Saint Cloud area did not come through totally unscathed from that
storm with wind gusts of 77 mph recorded at the airport and 79 mph
recorded at Saint Cloud State University resulting in power outages and
downed trees. The 3 Minnesota deaths recorded from that night's storms
were caused by lightning strikes and flash flooding, both of which
kill more people in the United States, on the average, than tornadoes.

JUNE STATISTICS                  JUNE 1998              NORMAL
TEMPERATURE ( F)
Average high temp                 73.6                   77.4
Average low temp                  52.9                   52.2
Average temp                      63.3                   64.8
Hottest high temp for the month   86 on the 26th
Coolest high temp for the month   58 on the 6th
Warmest low temp for the month    66 on the 24th
Coolest low temp for the month    35 on the 7th (tied record; see below)
Records:                          
	Daily cold low:           35 on the 7th (tied record set in 1897)

PRECIPITATION (IN)              JUNE 1998              NORMAL
Total for month                   4.28                  4.60
Maximum daily amount              1.06 on the 18th