June temperatures above normal despite mid-month cooling

By Hannah Shirley, College of Agricultural, Human & Natural Resource Sciences

agweathernet-logo-250PROSSER, Wash. – June was warm and dry in Washington, despite a few cool days and isolated wet weather mid-month. The Tri-Cities reached 90 degrees on June 2 and Orondo topped out at 95 degrees on June 23.

“June was the fourth consecutive month of above average temperatures for Washington,” said AgWeatherNet meteorologist Nic Loyd. “The climate during the first half of 2014 has reinforced the recent trend toward much warmer weather, especially during the spring and early summer, relative to the cool years of the late 2000s and early 2010s.”

A Web-based, publicly available system, AgWeatherNet (http://weather.wsu.edu/awn.php) provides access to near real-time weather data and value-added products from Washington State University’s statewide weather network, along with decision aids for agricultural producers and other users.

The highlight of June was the unsettled mid-month period that resulted from two separate upper-level low-pressure systems that affected the state on June 13 and again on June 16 and 17.

At Brays Landing, north of Wenatchee, 1.15 inches of rain fell on June 13, and even the warmer areas of Washington only reached highs of around 70 degrees. Moxee plummeted to 32 degrees on June 16, and the daily rainfall total at St. Andrews was 1.1 inches. The high temperature at Garfield East on June 17 was a rain-cooled 46 degrees, while 0.87 inches of rain fell at Fairfield, south of Spokane.

“The weather has exhibited a disparate impact on regional crops during the early portion of the 2014 growing season,” said AgWeatherNet Director Gerrit Hoogenboom. “The lack of frost and rainfall has been good news for central Washington’s irrigated agriculture, including cherries, but the drought conditions have been bad news for dryland wheat growers in eastern Washington.”
Contact:
Nic Loyd, WSU AgWeatherNet meteorologist, 509-786-9357, nicholas.loyd@wsu.edu