May was cool and wet. The first of June arrived, a switch was flipped and it suddenly became summer with hot and dry conditions. Had it not been for some rainy and cooler weather the last week of June it would have been a very dry month and likely a record hot June!
Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent said that the average daily high for June was 88 degrees, 2.9 degrees above normal. The average overnight low was 67.3, 3.2 degrees above normal. This gave a monthly mean temperature of 77.6, 3 degrees above normal. The morning low of 57 degrees on June 2nd was the lowest temperature for the month. The highest temperature for the month was the high of 101 on the 17th and 18th.
The 101 reading on the 17 also broke the record high for that date. The previous record was 100 degrees set in 1953 and reached again in 1959. The high of 100 on the 16th was the first time since we hit 102 on July 7, 2018 that we reached 100 or above, a span of 1,075 days. The high of 100 on June 16th was also 120 days after we had a morning low of -18 on February 16th, a temperature spread of 118 degrees. The hottest June on record was in 1953 with a monthly mean temperature of 83 degrees. The coldest June on record was in 1982 with a monthly mean temperature of a pleasant, or chilly, 67.8 degrees.
After having 8 consecutive days of measurable rainfall in May (and 17 out of 31 days for the month), we went 22 days with no rain in June. June is historically our second wettest month but we came up very short this year. Average June rainfall is 4.84 inches. Milford Lake received 1.27 inches for the month and Junction City received 2.08 inches. For the first half of the year, average precipitation is 16.96 inches. So far in 2021 Milford Lake has received 13.42 inches and Junction City 17.80 inches. The driest June on record was in 1966 when 0.20 inches was all that was recorded. The wettest June on records was the year just prior to that, 1965, when 11.90 inches deluged the area.
July is our hottest month of the year. Average daily high temperatures during July don’t change very much running about 90 degrees through the whole month. Likewise overnight low temperatures don’t vary much running in the upper 60s from the 1st to the 31st. Looking at long term records we find that daily highs peak about the 18th or 19th of the month and then slowly start to go down. Rainfall generally decreases slightly during July but thunderstorms still bring us an average of 4.14 inches for the month.