June ended warm and very wet
This will come as news to absolutely no one. And on top of that, it's coming 11 days late thanks to a vacation on the high seas. But in the interests of consistency and a complete record, here are the stats from the month of June.
June was extraordinarily wet. BWI-Marshall recorded 7.32 inches of rain in all, nearly 3.9 inches above the 30-year average for the month. That's essentially two months of rain in one. The overage can be blamed on a solid week of rainfall between the 23rd and 29th, when a gusher of moist, tropical Atlantic air took aim on a stalled cold front draped across the Northeast. The wet air rain up over the cold air, and dropped its moisture. The result was some extensive flooding, especially across the Susquehanna River watershed.
The wettest day was Sunday, June 25, when 2.75 inches fell at BWI - a new record for the date, shattering the 1.95 inch mark set on June 25, 1872. But it rained for seven straight days, leaving 5.14 inches in all. Without that week, June would have ended drier than average. In fact, even with all that rain, BWI through June 30 remained 2.72 inches short of average precipitation for the calendar year.
The average temperature was 73.1 degrees, or 1.2 degrees warmer than the 30-year norm. The hottest day was June 18, when the thermometer at BWI hit 95 degrees - no record. There were six days in the 90s, and 15 that topped out in the 80s. The coolest days were June 10 and June 14, when the daytime high rested at 73 degrees. Nice.
Not surprisingly, with all that rain, most of the month was cloudy or partly so - 28 days in all. Only 2 were rated clear- June 18 and 30.
For those of you who write the checks, June ended with 252 cooling degree days, or 6.7 percent more than average. That means that the warm weather boosted demand for air conditioning by 6.7 percent above the average for June. And that means, all else being equal, we shelled out that much more dough to keep cool. That, of course, will be quickly forgotten once our July bills from BGE come in, reflecting the 15 percent rate hike that began July 1. An ice bag on the forehead will help.
