MU climatologist: A gentle June in Missouri

COLUMBIA, Mo. – There were cool days and warm days, but overall June in Missouri was mild as milk.

“When we look at the month as a whole, starting out cool the first half and a little bit warmer for the second half, it’s going be an above-normal month,” said Pat Guinan, climatologist for University of Missouri Extension’s Commercial Agriculture Program. “The preliminary numbers show it was about 1 degree above normal.”

Cloudy days in early June kept high temperatures at bay, Guinan said. Then toward the end of the month we had more blue sky and sunny days that brought higher temperatures and humidity, he said.

Many of those cloudy days were also rainy days, making June a fairly wet month.

“Average statewide precipitation was over 6 inches, and that’s about an inch and a half above normal,” Guinan said. “Missouri’s a big state, so there were regional differences.”

The wettest areas of Missouri were the northern, western and extreme southeastern parts of the state, where totals ran 7 to 10 inches, he said. The wettest spot was Unionville in Putnam County, which saw 14.77 inches of rain.

All that rain brought relief to the drier parts of the Show-Me State.

“Seven to 10 inches of rain is going to be a pretty good drought buster,” Guinan said. “We saw improvement across the state, especially northern and western sections. There’s still moderate drought conditions in some southwestern Missouri counties.”

While that rain brought much-needed relief to drought-stricken parts of Missouri, it’s creating flood risks along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

“We have moderate to major flooding along the Mississippi River, especially along the Iowa and Illinois border and down into north of Saint Louis,” Guinan said.

July is starting out more like “puppy days” rather than the expected hot and humid “dog days.”

“There are indications of a cooler and wetter pattern for the first half of July. If that prediction holds true, we will need to keep an eye on those rivers, not only in Missouri but across much of the Midwest,” Guinan said.