June was so very 'June-Like' this year.

Another month passes to the archives and this was a fairly typical June here in the Greater Portland-Vancouver region. Temps ran ever-so-slightly above average has seems to be the trend lately. With the exception of one heat wave early in the month and one bout with some heavy rain this was a very pleasant month.

The heat wave came on back to back days where I recorded identical daily highs of 95.7 degrees. Some stations in the area reported triple digits on one or both of those two days. Depending on your definition of "heat" the warm spell lasted from June 3rd through the 7th with mid to upper eighties on the other three days. 95.7 was the monthly high. For the rest of June after this warm spell, there was just three more 80 degree marks the rest of the month. The coolest temperature I recorded was a crisp 42.6 the morning of the 19th. The coolest afternoon came on the 14th when the mercury failed to reach 60 topping out at just 58.8 degrees. The warmest overnight low came on the 5th when it only cooled down to 63.1 degrees and that came off the previous days scorching 95.7 high.

Overall June produced a mere 2 days over 90 degrees for me and a total of 8 days in the eighties or higher. 11 days failed to hit 70 degrees. The temps at both ends of the day averaged about 2 degrees warmer than my 15 year establish "normals".

On the waterfront, I recorded 1.77 inches of rain well below my "normal' mark of 2.47 in June. The wettest day was 0.66 inches on the 23rd and there were 8 days with measurable rain including 2 with more than a quarter inch in the bucket.

We had some thunderstorms, a little hail and some amazing warm sunny days. It was in a word: June.

July and August are the only two "dry months" in this area and these are also the "hot" months. So far July is pretty mild as I am sitting at a San Diego Beach, comfy 73.6 degrees under mostly sunny skies. Me likes ;)

Warm May and June Starts off Sizzlin'

Another month is in the books and it was a toasty one, relatively speaking that is. I had to fall back on an emergency backup plan as I left for a business trip on the 20th of May and whilst I was cruising at 37,000 feet my weather station decided to take a vacation. So I returned to find a data gap. Fortunately there are three amateur stations withing a few hundred yards of my station and I was able to borrow data to fill the gap.

That said the other station tends to record high a touch warmer than I as my station is 100% shielded from direct sun. Be that as it may, the month was well above average by any measure. Rainfall was bit light with half the month's total falling on one day.

The warmest day at my station was May 13th, with a toasty 88.7 degrees and several stations in the metro area reported temps over 90 degrees that day. We had one evening that remain balmy all night long, the 1st of May yielded a low of a sweaty, 67.8 degrees. The coldest overnight low came on the 28th with a seasonally chilly 42 degrees. The chilliest afternoon was also the wettest day with a high of just 54.7 degrees on the 15th. We enjoyed a month with just 6 rainy days and only half of those were actually "rainy" per se. I had 9 days with temps above eighty degrees. May was just downright pleasant.

On the water side of the weather, May was a tad on the dry side. May and June mark a transition of spring to summer and rainfall can be quite sporadic. This time around we had 2.19 inches in the bucket measured against my average of 3.25 inches. The wettest day came on the 15th when 1.10 inches crashed down upon me. I know people in Texas and Louisiana are like that's per hour, right? No my friends that was all day long. So far this year we are down against my average of the first five months of 24.92 inches against an observed 22.77. For the rain season we are way up as December was more than double her average. We are all good as far as rain is concerned for the wet season October 1st, 2015 through September 30, 2016 even if no more rain falls. But rest assured more will come ;)

June is going to lead off with a weekend sizzler according to the local weather pros. Some forecasts are suggesting that the century mark will fall on Sunday. I doubt my location will get that hot, but other areas in the Metro Portland/Vancouver may in fact see triple digit temperatures. That kind of heat is not my thing. Maybe I'll brave the crowds at the coast this weekend.