June 1st: The real beginning of our summer
June is so much more of a summer month than September. From a meteorological standpoint summer begins on the first day of June and continues until August 31st. Our lazy hazy days of September are more aligned with the weather of fall than summer.
With the damp and cool days of May folks are ready for some warmer weather. The May rains have been good for area lawns and gardens and with the threat of frost out of the picture it’s time to plant vegetables and summer crops.
After the torrid summer of last year the big question is what will our summer weather look like this season?
Most of us will remember last summer for its relentless heat and dry weather. We ended up with 29 days when our temperature exceeded 90 degrees or better and very little rain fell throughout the summer. Once again the forecast for much of the country is on the warm side and this will continue a pattern that has emerged in recent decades brought on by our changing climate.
One of the by-products of a hot summer is the hurricane and once again forecasts are for an active season. Folks in the mountains of North Carolina are still dealing with the effects of Hurricane Helene that brought relief from the heat last summer but left entire cities devastated from the unprecedented rainfall and flooding.
In our area the Climate Prediction Center is forecasting the next three months to have above normal temperatures along with rainfall more near our normal which should be good news. The problem with summer rainfall is that most of it comes in the form of afternoon showers and thundershowers and not all areas get the rainfall they need.
Added to this is the uncertainty that can occur when a hurricane moves inland and dumps too much rain and causes extreme flooding. This happened across southwestern Pennsylvania in June of 1972 when hurricane Agnes dumped 4.34 inches of rain in Uniontown in 24 hours. Another hurricane, Carol, gave us our daily record rainfall of 4.60 inches in October 1954. Both caused widespread flooding. Agnes left York, Pennsylvania with over 20 inches of rain for the month of June 1972.
I have some good news for those who are waiting for some warmer weather as the damp cold days of May depart and temperatures this coming week will rise into the 80s along with lots of sunshine. Average temperatures for June start out on the first at 77 and 54 and by month’s end are 85 and 62. Records are 97 and 33 and we average three days of 90 or better. Last year we had six.
One hundred degree weather is confined to July and August and occurs once every five years in July and once every 10 years in August.
The coming days should be great for outdoor activities and at this point this summer should be better than last year.