June 2005 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Saint Cloud Weather Summary for June 2005

After a lack of what most people would consider summer weather in late April and much of May, June 2005 provided it. The June 2005 average temperature at the Saint Cloud Regional Airport was 70.1°F, a full 5.0°F above normal. The list of the warmest June average temperatures shows that this June ended up 0.2°F short of the 10 warmest Junes in Saint Cloud records. Instead, June 2005 ranked as the 12th warmest June in Saint Cloud history. Note from the table that June 2005 was the second warmest June in the past 73 years. The only June during the second two-thirds of the 20th century to be warmer was 1988, ranking 6th on the list.

The hottest day of the month was June 23, which broke all of the record warm temperatures for the date. (June daily records) The high temperature of 98°F was the hottest temperature recorded in Saint Cloud in nearly 4 years. June 23 was also only the 11th day with at high of at least 97°F since the severely hot summer of 1988 (13 days with a high of at least 97°F; extreme highs since 1988). However, it hasn't been warmer than 98°F since July 3, 1990, the last time the temperature broke 100°F in Saint Cloud.

The low temperature on June 23 was only 76°F. This was the first day since June 30, 2002, and only the 51st day in the 112 years of Saint Cloud daily records that the low temperature was no lower than 75°F. (Days with low temperature of at least 75°F).

June 2005's warmth persisted throughout the whole month. For many people, the first part of June was as unsatisfactory as May. Even though the high temperature only broke 80°F three days out of the first 16 days of June, there were only two days during the entire month that the daily temperature was below normal (June 16 and June 30) (June 2005 Daily Statistics). The cool highs didn't lead to below normal temperatures because: 1) the low temperatures were well above normal due to the frequent overnight clouds and rain; 2) some late afternoon sun ended up pushing the high temperature into the upper half of the 70's on all but three days. The additional warmth during the second half of the month resulted in only two high temperatures of the final 13 days failed to break 80°F. Still, the average high temperature for the month was 80.4°F was 3.1°F above normal, but the average low temperature of 59.8°F, 6.9°F warmer than normal.

The relatively high humidity of the month has been produced by the seemingly endless rain during the month. However, the total June rainfall was 4.37 inches, which was actually 0.14 below normal. After getting measurable rainfall 11 of the first 15 days, there were only 4 days with measurable rainfall during the last half of June.

It did seem wetter because showers and thunderstorms were in the state of Minnesota more frequently in June. There were several days during which heavy rain was produced in Minnesota, but missed Saint Cloud. The weekly Minnesota rainfall map from the Minnesota State Climatology Office shows that the Saint Cloud area has had near normal rain since April, but western Stearns County, much of Morrison and Mille Lacs County, northern Kandiyohi County, and all of Pope County has had between 25% and 75% more rainfall than normal. For the area around Lake Mille Lacs, western Stearns County through northern Kandiyohi County and Swift County (from about Sauk Centre through Paynesville and New London then west to Benson) rank in the 2% of wettest growing seasons thus far.

What about the coming month? One long-range forecaster with the National Weather Service made a comment that the upper-air pattern this June has often resembled the pattern seen during much of the summer of 2001. If you don't recall, July and August 2001 were persistently hot and humid. The last three weeks of July 2001 produced an outbreak of hot, humid weather that killed over 200 people, including 8 people in Minnesota. One of those people was Minnesota Viking Corey Stringer. All I can say so far is that, during the next week, it appears that the hot, humid weather will resume the second half of the upcoming week. How hot it will be will depend on how many thunderstorms are in the area.

    June 2005 Statistics