BLOG: A Review of June and a Look at July's Forecast

*Note* Click on the images to enlarge them.June 2015 is in the books and THANK GOODNESS!  June is usually one of my favorite weather months but not this year! It was of course ridiculously rainy and stormy.Let's show you all the ugly numbers. These rain totals are from "backyard" rain gauges; owners upload the data to sites such as Weather Underground. That's how I look at the data. The official numbers at the airport in Vienna were just as impressive. June 2015 was the 3rd wettest June on record and the 7th wettest month on record in Youngstown. Notice the lack of truly dry days. Only 6 days had ZERO rain and many of those were early in the month.While we had it bad, believe it or not, some places had it WORSE! Especially compared to the average. Many places in northern Indiana and around Baltimore/Washington had their wettest June ever and some had their wettest month overall.Of course all this rain led to many flooding problems. We had bouts of "severe" weather as well. Severe meaning damaging winds and large hail. Here are the storm reports called into the NWS in June in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Temperatures were not very remarkable in June. We finished the month on a very cool note but overall the month was about a 1/2 degree warmer than an average June. Here are the June temperatures in Youngstown dating back to 1975:Ok so what about July? I think this July will be similar to last July in that extreme heat is quite unlikely. 90 degree days will be hard to find. We may get a couple. Overall the hottest weather (compared to average) will be in the Northwest. The Plains will be cool. In our area, I think the month will end up being near or perhaps slightly cooler than a typical July.The all-important topic of rain is next. We NEED a dry month! But I do not see July being unusually dry. I do think it will be much closer to average than June, but that is not exactly a bold statement. While the wettest weather may be found in the lower Ohio Valley and Mississippi Valley, Youngstown will probably be a bit above average in the rain department.Monthly rain forecasts in the warm season are tricky because thunderstorms can give some places a lot of rain while others miss. So sometimes the numbers get skewed.Thanks for reading! Enjoy the great weather we have coming for most of the next 5-6 days and have a great holiday.Eric