Not a shock: June was wettest in decades

Pamplin Media Group, Jul 2, 2010

You already knew this, but last month was Portland’s wettest June in nearly seven decades.

Steve Pierce, vice president of the Oregon chapter of the American Meteorological Society, says the month — known affectionately as “Juneuary” — logged a soggy 4.27 inches of rain. That’s more than any other June on record between 1941 and 2010, Pierce says.

About 95 percent of the month’s rain fell in the first 15 days of June, he says.

Oh, yeah, it also was colder than usual. Pierce says June’s temperatures were more than two degrees below normal most of the month.

“At one point about two-thirds of the way through the month, Portland was looking at the second coldest June in history before finally warming up near the end of the month,” Pierce says.

Local temperatures only reached 80 or warmer four times so far this year, Pierce says. By now the region should have seen an average of about eight days hitting 80 or higher, he says.

Next week could be a different story. Pierce says local temperatures could shoot into the 90s.

“We may just be flirting with more records next week, just not the kind we have been used to as of late,” he says.

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