June 2025 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

4th Wettest Dec-June Overcomes Lingering Water Shortages of Past Two Warm Seasons

Minnesota had been struggling to make up the rainfall shortage that lasted all fall in St. Cloud and had begun during the summer in parts of northern Minnesota (compare US Drought Monitor of May 27, 2025 with November 5, 2024). The St. Cloud Regional Airport had only been keeping pace with average since the beginning of the growing season (6.21 inches in April and May 2025; 6.27 inch average). That left St. Cloud 3.77 inches short of rainfall between September 2024 and the end of May 2025.

Then came June. The St. Cloud Regional Airport recorded 7.81 inches of rain during the month, more than double the 3.75 inch average. That made June 2025 St. Cloud's 10th wettest June on record. June 2025 was also St. Cloud's wettest month since August 2016 (8.36 inches). It was St. Cloud's wettest June since 1990. That June, which finally broke for good the 1986-1989 drought, was the 2nd wettest June in St. Cloud records, and the 5th wettest of any month in St. Cloud records (click on all-time rainiest months). Overall, June 2025 ranked as St. Cloud's 23rd wettest month of the 1589 months in St. Cloud records since 1893.

Hit and miss showers occurred frequently during the first 10 days of the month, produce 0.73 inch, but without a single day of at least a quarter inch. Since water usage requires nearly an inch a month during the summer, this rate of rain wasn't enough to catch up. And, many areas missed that rainfall. Beginning on June 12, the main front separating very warm and humid air to the south from seasonably warm Canadian air to the north came closer to Minnesota, allowing deeper moisture to get into storms. From June 16 on, high pressure set up somewhere between the Southern Rockies and the Tennessee River Valley, ensuring that oppressive heat and humidity fed into the nearby front, so that any decent low near the front could produce major thunderstorm outbreaks. Two days had more than an inch of rain: June 25 produced 2.05 inches of rain and June 28 produced 1.12 inch. No day had a rainfall record, and St. Cloud had 2 days with at least two inches of rain last year: July 13 (2.10 inch) and August 5 (2.81 inches). Still, this June's 6 days with at least half an inch of rain were the most since June 2000. The 16 days with measurable rainfall was the most since June 2014 and the 11 days with at least 0.10 inch of rain was the most since June 2010.

Because of the thunderstorms, not everyone got sufficient rain to completely ease the dry conditions. The June 26 US Drought Monitor (data cut-off on June 24, so it missed the big rains on the 25th and 29th) still shows northwestern Minnesota and a piece of north central Minnesota from Lake Itasca through Lake Bemidji and the large lakes to the east as being in the first drought category. Portions of the Lake of the Woods shore and the Rainy Lake valley had less than 2 inches of rain in June (see green areas) On the other hand, parts of central and southern Minnesota picked up over 10 inches of rain (cyan on the NWS Water Prediction Service's Minnesota June rainfall map), leading to flooding.

The main storm track provided a few stronger storms when high amounts of moisture were available, producing a damaging period of severe weather, especially during the second half of June. On June 16, there were storms that produced notable wind damage in central Minnesota and two tornadoes, including one in Merrifield (see links to summaries from both National Weather Service offices and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in the blue box above and below this discussion for more details). On June 20, a derecho (a large area of straight-line wind damage produced a swath of damage in lake country from Lake Itasca through Bemidji into Grand Rapids and the Iron Range. The top wind gust at the Bemidji Airport was 106 MPH, a figure that the Minnesota DNR noted was the highest recorded wind in Minnesota since 2012 (again, see summaries in blue tables above and below). The damage was from a line of storms that developed in eastern North Dakota, after producing an EF-3 tornado that killed 3 people in ND.

On June 25, severe storms produced 6 tornadoes in south central and southeastern Minnesota. There was also some tree and wind damage in central Minnesota with funnel clouds in the area. Finally, the June 28-29 storm produced strong tornadoes near the South Dakota-Minnesota border and two tornadoes in the southwestern Twin Cities suburbs.

In total, the number of June tornadoes was likely the most in Minnesota since 2010 and 2011, but a lot of work from the Minnesota DNR and the National Weather Service is needed to confirm this.

Rainier Weather Improved Air Quality Despite Even More Canadian Wildfires

Another accomplishment of the frequent rain was to reduce the smoke plume from the Canadian tundra wildfires. Those fires now extend from interior Alaska through the Yukon, then northern Alberta all the way to western Ontario (also see the fireweatheravalanche.org wildfire map). The first 12 days of June had worsened the trend seen in May (3 days with unhealthy orange levels of AQI on the May calendar of Minnesota Pollution Control Agency air quality site) with 6 days of unhealthy air, 3 of which had red air quality index in northern Minnesota (see June calendar from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency air quality site). However, cooler conditions and more frequent rainfall even in Canada has reduced the area seeing high levels of smoke pollution near the ground to the immediate fire regions (see recent EPA fire and smoke map for latest air quality index).

Wild Temperature Swings from Record Warm to Record Cold

Because Minnesota was near the storm track where sultry and and cooler Canadian air met, there were wild temperature swings, both when St. Cloud nudged into the oppressive air during the second half of the month and leftover rain on the cool side of storm systems kept down the high temperatures. St. Cloud set 4 record warm temperatures on June 21-22 when the oppressive air got into St. Cloud. Those days were notable for how hot it got (see the list below for who got the 100-plus degree temperatures), but St. Cloud only beat one record warm high (96) on June 21. More notable was the night of June 21 and 22. A combination of dew points in the 70's, thunderstorms remaining to the north of St. Cloud, and a strong southeast wind kept the low temperature to 80 degrees. Since the thunderstorms of the following night didn't come until late at night, that 80-degree low stood up. That not only set a record warm low for June 22, but for the entire month of June. In fact, this was only the 7th St. Cloud low of 80 or warmer in record history and the last one was August 14, 1938. The other 6 80-degree lows were set in either July or August and not in the previous 85 years!

• Saturday, June 21
  • Hottest Minnesota Temperature
    • 102 Canby and Madison
  • Worst Heat Index
    • Benson 117 (Foley 110)
  • Temperature Records
  • St. Cloud
    • High 96 (95 in 1900, 1910)
    • Average 83 (81 in 1910)
    • Worst heat index 105
  • Duluth
    • High 86 (84 in 1940)
  • Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
    • High 96 (95 in 1910)
    • Low 80 (74 in 1923, 1943), earliest 80-degree low on record
  • Rochester
    • Low 75 (72 in 1943
• Sunday, June 22
  • Hottest Minnesota Temperature
    • 100 Madison
  • Worst Heat Index
    • Benson, Crystal, Fergus Falls, Madison, Morris, St. James 107
  • Temperature Records
  • St. Cloud
    • Low 80 (70 in 1930)
      • Record warm low for June (old record: 78 on June 28, 1931)
      • First low of 75 degrees or warmer since July 4, 2012 (low of 76)
      • Only 7th low of 80 degrees or warmer in St. Cloud records; first since August 14, 1938
    • Average 88 (82 in 1911)
    • Worst heat index 104

Overall, St. Cloud had an average June temperature of 67.1 degrees (average high 77.4 degrees, average low 56.8 degrees), 1.1 degrees above average. St. Cloud has now been warmer than average during 23

    June 2025 Statistics

Last Updated: July 1, 2025