June 2014: A "normal" month temperature wise.. but much wetter than usual..

June 2014 - Winnipeg Airport
Daily temperature graph and
anomaly from normal

June 2014 in Winnipeg finished with an average temperature of 17.0C, right on average for June based on the 30 year normal.  The statistic is a bit surprising given the frequent cool and rainy spells that occurred, especially in the latter half of the month. However, there were enough warm days and mild nights to boost the monthly average to "normal" values.

Rainfall was a different story. A total of 147.1 mm fell at YWG airport during June, some 57 mm (63%) above the 30 year June average of 90 mm. According to JJ's Winnipeg weather blog, this makes this June the wettest June in Winnipeg since 2000 (177 mm) and the city's 12th wettest June since records began in 1872. Totals were even higher in other parts of the city with 167 mm at my location in SW Winnipeg, and 170 mm at  the Forks downtown. It also didn't help matters that much of the rain fell over the last 3 weekends of the month, spoiling summer weekend plans for many. The rain however was even worse over western Manitoba which was deluged with record rainfall during June. In Brandon, their June rainfall total of 251.6 mm was the wettest month on record since records began in 1890. Previous wettest month was August 1980 at 217 mm. The bulk of the rain fell over the last two weeks of the month, leading to widespread overland flooding over southwest Manitoba. Rivers and lakes are at very high to record high levels across southern Manitoba, with flood warnings and high water advisories on many lakes and tributaries.  The abnormally wet conditions prompted the opening of the Red River floodway on July 1st to ease the risk of flooding in the city of Winnipeg.

So is there any hope of drier weather the rest of the summer?  Too hard to say. The next few days look promising with drier weather for the balance of the week. Increasing heat and humidity over the weekend will lead to a greater chance of showers and thunderstorms developing over southern Manitoba, but hopefully the activity will be more scattered and transitory compared to the past few episodes. Beyond that, there are no clear signals as to how the rest of the summer will shape up. Certainly there's a lot of moisture around which helps to fuel more shower and thunderstorm activity. But a favourable upper pattern can shut off the taps for long stretches as well. We're approaching the peak of summer now (mid July is our summer peak in terms of average temperature), and hopefully Mother Nature starts to take a much-needed summer break soon!