For the second month in a row Junction City temperatures were well above normal. For the eighth month in a row precipitation was below normal. These two factors working in unison create a picture that isn’t positive for plants or agriculture.

The average daily high during June was 90.4, 6.1 degrees above normal (and even above the average daily high of 90.1 for July!). The average overnight low was 69.3, 6.9 degrees above normal. This gave us a monthly mean temperature of 79.8, 6.4 degrees above normal (and one degree above normal for July, traditionally our hottest month of the year.) The hottest day of the year was on the 28th when we hit 102 degrees. The coolest reading for June was 59 degrees the morning of June 2nd. There were two temperature records set in June and three tied. All were for record high, low temperatures. The overnight lows of 76 on the 15th and 78 on the 28th broke the old record high lows for those dates of 73 on the 15th, set in 1956, 1994 and 2016, and 76 on the 28th set in 1959 and 1990. The following overnight lows tied the records for those dates: 75 on the 13th was reached in 1950 and 2017, the low of 76 on the 14th tied the record set in 1952 and the low of 76 on the 17th tied the record set in 2016. Temperatures reached 100 or above only twice during the month and those were late in the month. In a month when the average daily high shouldn’t reach 90 until the last few days of the month, daily highs reached 90 or above on 17 days. Overnight lows failed to drop below 70 degrees on 15 days. Long term average overnight lows should be below 70 all through June.

A very discouraging pattern continued through June with rains occurring during the evening to the north and west of our region, running out of moisture and energy by the time they got to us and then rebuilding the following day to our south and east. Drought monitor maps are showing this pattern very clearly. June is traditionally our wettest month with 4.80 inches of rain. In June Milford Lake received 2.04 inches and Junction City received 1.99 inches of rain. The driest June on record was in 1966 when 0.20 inches of rain was all that could be mustered. The wettest June on record was 1965 when 11.90 inches of rain deluged the region. Normal year to date rainfall through the end of June is 16.65 inches. Junction City has received 8.36 inches of rain (50% of normal) and Milford Lake has received 7.32 inches (44% of normal). This is second only to 1966 for the driest first six months of the year. In 1966 we had only received 4.32 inches of precipitation through the first half of the year. 1966 went on to be the driest year on record with only 15.61 inches of precipitation for the entire year. If we go back to September of 2017 and figure accumulated rainfall we have received 12.64 inches of precipitation, 50% of normal. This is drier than any equivalent time in records dating back to 1930.

If we look at the last two months and hold them in relation to July, then things aren’t boding well for us. July is typically the hottest month of the year. Average daily highs through the month of July don’t change much ranging from 90 through 92 over the entire month. Likewise, overnight lows tend to stay right around 67 for the entire month. Those are based on long term statistical projections. What we see is a trend of temperatures slowly warming until about the 19th before starting a long and very gradual decline as we move on into August. (August is the second hottest month of the year). Unfortunately, long term average rainfall also starts to decline during July with expected rainfall of only 4.07 inches for the month. If we were to reach that level it would be the first time that we had average or above average rainfall since last October.
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