Wet June, a hot July

“Intense Heat Persists, Little Relief In Sight” was Monday’s WSU’s AgWeatherNet outlook through July 14 for west of the Cascades. Temperatures in the 80s are forecast through Wednesday for coastal areas.

The end of the week summary is “60s and 70s expected.” The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory through 10 p.m. Tuesday for northern Puget Sound that included western Skagit County.

The weekend after July 4 became warmer and warmer, with blue skies and temperatures reaching a record 87.5 degrees 5 p.m. Sunday for the date and 87.2 degrees Monday at 4 p.m. at the Washington State University weather station on Memorial Highway.

Summer weather started on July 4, but June had its way: gloomy, with 14 days of rain. And, it was definitely cool, with four record low temperatures set for their days: June 6. 7, 13 and 25. The thermometer went down to 43.2 degrees, 42.5 degrees, 40.2 degrees – the month’s low temperature the 13th – and 43.0 degrees June 25.

The 17 mornings with lows in the 40s brought the month’s average low temperature down to 48.5 degrees, 1.8 degrees below the century average. The month’s average daily temperature was 59 degrees, 1.3 degrees below the century’s norm. June’s average daily high of 68.1 degrees was a full degree below average for the last 25 years. These lower temperatures are an outlier for the century.

Summer started warm, however: the month’s highest temperatures were 80.8 degrees June 21 and 77 degrees June 20. That brought about the month’s three warmest days, June 20-22, with the 64 degrees daily average temperature the 21st June’s highest, shouldered by 63 degrees June 20 and 62.5 degrees June 22.

June was much wetter than normal for this century, its 2.6 inches of rain almost an inch above the 25 year average of 1.7 inches. There were 14 days of measurable precipitation, but half were under one-tenth inch. Four days it rained over 0.4 inches. The back-to-back storms June 2-3 brought 0.9 inches. The rain June 26-27 added 1 inch.

Four of the six wettest years since 2000 have been since 2016, with 2024’s 2.6 inches the sixth wettest year. Over 3 inches fell in 2020 and 2022. And, an odd pattern: every even year since 2008 has had more June rain than the year following.

So, four of the seven years of less than an inch of June rain have been since 2015.

The record of 4.5 inches was in 2001.

Western Skagit County enters the dry season with 17.9 inches of rain to date, 1.4 inches above the century average.

Measurements and data are at Washington State University’s Mount Vernon weather station on Memorial Highway,

Rain Report: June

Rain last week, June 23-29: 0.01

Rainfall in June: 2.61

Number of rain days: 14

Least rain, one day: 0.01, 3 days

Most rain, one day: 0.55, June 26

Rainfall last month, May: 2.89

Average rainfall, June 2000-2023: 1.73

Least rain: 0.1, 2003

Most rain: 4.5, 2001

Totals in inches. Data from WSU Mount Vernon.