June 2019 comes to a close as a month that was slightly cooler than average, and slightly drier than average in Champaign-Urbana. Does any of that surprise you? The cooler than average temperatures were pretty obvious, but it sure didn’t feel like a drier month. Let’s recap how it all happened.
The average temperature for the month of June in Champaign-Urbana was 71.6 degrees, which comes in just 0.6 degrees below average.
Cooler temperatures for much of the month had folks asking when summer was going to arrive. It’s not lost on me, by the way, that after a week of typical summertime heat folks are already asking when the heat will go away. I’ve got an answer for that, if you keep reading! Anyway, this article isn’t about how folks are rarely happy about the current weather, so I digress.
After a warm-ish start to June which included a string of days with high temperatures in the middle to upper 80s we ran into a stretch of cooler weather across the Midwest. Beginning on June 10th, we did not see one day of above average warmth until June 23rd, a streak of nearly two weeks straight with cooler than average temperatures with many days spent in the 70s.
Summer heat arrived on June 26th when we hit our first 90-degree day of the year in Champaign-Urbana. Our warmest day of the year so far occured on June 30th when we topped 94-degrees. It’s been a muggy stretch too, with overnight low temperatures only dropping to around 70-degrees each night. I’ll admit it, I too miss windows-open season.
Total precipitation amounts varied widly across Champaign County for the month of June which is typical for this time of year. We get much of our June precipitation from thunderstorms, which are at times very isolated in nature. One town sees heavy downpours, while the neighboring town sees nothing at all. A pain in the butt to forecast, and a headache for those farmers who did end up under untimely downpours.
For Champaign-Urbana, the official monthly total was 2.82″ which is 1.52″ below the June average of 4.34″. We blew that number away a year ago, if you remember, with 8.26″ of precipitation in our rainiest June ever.
The month started very dry in the Twin Cities, picking up slightly mid to late month. It wasn’t until June 13th that we picked up our first significant precipitation, measuring 0.62″ from some showers moving through Central Illinois.
Rain and thunderstorms then occured every 2-3 days to close out the month as we shifted toward a more active pattern.
It was a rather quiet month for severe weather in Champaign County, with the most common nuisance being squall lines or clusters of storms producing damaging wind gusts. One such cluster of storms moved through the night of June 15th producing sporadic wind damage across the county. Additional strong storms produced wind damage as they moved through during the afternoon of Sunday, June 30th.
Where are we headed for July? Well, for now, it’s hot. It’s hot, and we’re in a typical summer pattern where we look toward the peak heating of the afternoon for pop-up thunderstorms that are often hard to predict in advance, but can soak you with a quick downpour if you’re caught under one.
Looking out to the next 7-10 days, it looks like we’ll moderate some, but keep warm and muggy conditions in the area through the 4th of July holiday weekend. Beyond that, a shift in the jet stream could lead us back into a cooler and wetter regime as we move into the middle of July. This could mean that much of the second half of July ends up on the cooler side with high temperatures in the upper 70s and lower 80s, with frequent opportunities for rain and thunderstorms.
For that reason, it’s my best guess that a month from now we’ll be recapping a July that was slightly cooler than average, and slightly wetter than average. For reference, the average temperature for July in Champaign-Urbana is 75 degrees, and the average monthly precipitation is 4.70″.
Andrew operates Chambana Weather, where he publishes daily weather information for Champaign-Urbana and surrounding communities. He is also an agricultural meteorologist with Nutrien Ag Solutions at Research Park, focused on domestic and international weather and its impact on ag.
Champaign-Urbana monthly climate statistics are courtesy of the Illinois State Water Survey.
Photos by Andrew Pritchard