State Climatologist Justin Glisan. (file photo courtesy of Iowa PBS.)
State Climatologist Justin Glisan says the month of June ended up being a little on the warm side.
“The statewide average temperature, we were about 71point-seven degrees, and that’s nearly two degrees above average,” Glisan says. He says it took about half of June before the heat really took over.
“We started the month off actually near normal to slightly cooler than average and then we get into the middle of the month and the atmospheric furnace turned on,” Glisan says. “And we had a stretch of days in the 80s and 90s with dew points up in the 70s and 80s. So triple-digit heat indices, So very warm as we ended the month.”
June went against the norm in many areas of the state when it comes to precipitation.” June is the wettest month climatologically for the northern two-thirds of the state. And we were about an inch and a half below average, the statewide average was about three and three-quarters of an inch,” according to Glisan. “So that’s pretty dry when you’re considering it’s the wettest month and hence we saw drought expansion, D-1, D-2, and even the introduction of D-3 drought in the northwestern corner, and then some abnormally dry conditions creeping into the southwest and in eastern Iowa.”
July is off to a warm start and Glisan says that’s the signal right now. “We do have high probabilities of warmer temperatures for the month and then for the first half of the month if you look at those short-term outlooks six to 10, and eight to 14-day outlook,” Glisan says. “Now coupled with that, on the precipitation side though, we are seeing an elevated signal for wetter conditions. So that’s a good signal to see when you do see the probability of warmer temperatures.”
He says wetter conditions could help with some of the expansion of the drought conditions we saw in June.
(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)