June 2022 Climate Summary

Temperatures averaged around 1 degree above normal. The periods from June 3-5, June 19-20, and June 27-29 featured the most pronounced cool spells, with lows in the 50s, including some record lows on the 29th. The main headline was the unusually early heat wave that we experience June 12-16. High temperatures surged into the mid 90s to around 100 and combined with high humidity to produce heat index values ranging from 105-110 on most days. June 13th featured the highest heat index ranging from 105 to 119 degrees. Cape Girardeau hit 100 degrees for the first time since 2016 and Poplar Bluff hit it for the first time since 2013. Overnight lows were very warm, with readings failing to fall below 80 degrees in several locations on the 13th and 14th. All-time June record warm lows were tied or set in Paducah, Evansville, and Cape Girardeau. This was also the earliest occurrence of lows remaining above 80 on record for these 3 locations. A second heat wave occurred from June 20-25 with highs routinely in the low to mid 90s, although humidity levels weren’t as high so heat index readings remained below 100 for the most part.

It was an abnormally dry June area wide with widespread rainfall deficits of 1 to 3”. This lead to the development of drought conditions for portions of the Wabash Valley area of southeast Illinois, southwest Indiana, and far northwest Kentucky. Evansville, Carbondale, Poplar Bluff, and Cape Girardeau all registered one of their top 10 driest June’s on record. Some relief occurred on June 26th for portions of southern Illinois and southeast Missouri, with rainfall totals of 0.5” to 3”, along with locally higher amounts. Despite this, monthly rainfall totals of less than 2” were common across large swaths of the region. This was the first June since 2012 that we didn’t issue a Flash Flood Warning for any part of our forecast area during the month of June. Typically, June is near the peak of our flash flood season. The highest observed total was 5.03” at a CoCoRaHS station 8 miles SSW of Marion, IL.

The most notable severe weather event during the month occurred on the morning of June 17th, when a line of thunderstorms produced damaging winds across southern Illinois, southwest Indiana, and western Kentucky. There were a total of 25 severe thunderstorm and 0 tornado warnings issued during the month. This is below the average for June which is around 48 combined warnings.

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