June has started out with some 90-degree days, which is much different than the just-ended month of May, which wrapped up cooler than normal, according to state climatologist Justin Glisan.
“We were about two-and-a-half degrees below average across the state and colder than average across the Midwest,” Glisan says. “We had a lot of cloudy days, a lot of daily highs that were below average.” As for precipitation across Iowa, Glisan says May was fairly typical.
“We’re looking at about four or four-and-a-half inches of rainfall across the state, which is about average,” Glisan says. “There are sections of the state in which we have drier-than-normal conditions. That’s where we saw some D-zero introduced by the U.S. Drought Monitor. D-zero is not drought. It’s abnormal dryness.”
Forecasting models are showing inconclusive predictions for Iowa’s weather during June, as some are indicating a warmer, drier month ahead while others show it’ll be cooler and wetter.
“Typically, when we’re in the summertime when we do see wetter-than-normal conditions, that’s tightly coupled with cooler-than-average conditions,” Glisan says. “There is an expectation that perhaps June could be warm and then we get to near-normal or slightly cooler conditions moving into July and August.” The first day of summer arrives June 20th.
(Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City contributed to this report.)