NATIONAL STORM SUMMARY

JUNE 2025

1-7: Showery weather dominated the central and eastern U.S., with some of the heaviest rain locally 2 to 4 inches or more) falling from Oklahoma and portions of neighboring states into the lower Midwest. Heavy rain also fell in southern Florida.

June opened with uncharacteristically heavy showers in parts of the Desert Southwest, where summer rainfall prior to the development of the monsoon circulation is rare. In Arizona, record-setting rainfall totals for June 2 included 0.24 inch in Phoenix and 0.10 inch in Yuma. The Southwestern rainfall was generated by an upper-level disturbance interacting with moisture loosely associated with the remnants of eastern Pacific Tropical Storm Alvin, which had dissipated on May 31. Locally heavy showers in the Desert Southwest lingered through June 4, when 0.74 inch pelted Prescott, AZ. During the first 4 days of June, Prescott received 1.03 inches. A day earlier, on the 3rd, Needles, CA (1.20 inches), had endured its wettest June day on record. The previous June daily record in Needles, 0.48 inch, had been set on June 23, 2000. Later, some of the same tropical-origin moisture became entangled in a cold front, helping to enhance rainfall totals across the nation’s mid-section. Record-setting rainfall totals for June 3 reached 2.53 inches in Kansas City, MO, and 2.05 inches in Burlington, IA. During the second half of the week, heavy showers and locally severe thunderstorms affected various parts of the country, with precipitation lingering in the central and southern Rockies and environs through June 5. Record-setting rainfall for the 5th reached 0.51 inch in Cedar City, UT, and 0.49 inch in Grand Junction, CO. Elsewhere on June 5, daily-record amounts included 1.16 inches in both Scottsbluff, NE, and Zanesville, OH. Late in the week, ongoing downpours peppered the South and East, resulting in daily-record totals topping 2 inches in locations such as Wallops Island, VA (3.49 inches on June 6), and Frankfort, KY (2.97 inches).

8-14: Rain fell in eastern Texas to trigger lowland flooding, with the Trinity River near Oakwood cresting 11.11 feet above flood stage on June 15 to reach its highest level in that location since March 2016. Locally heavy showers extended as far north as the lower Midwest and the middle Atlantic States, while a separate band of heavy rain stretched across the upper Midwest.

Southern showers were already heavy early in the week, with daily-record totals reaching 3.34 inches (on the 9th) in Gulfport, MS; 1.90 inches (on the 8th) in Tuscaloosa, AL; 1.75 inches (on the 9th) in Augusta, GA; and 1.68 inches (on the 9th) in Pine Bluff, AR. Storms also peppered the Northeast, where Watertown, NY (1.58 inches), measured a daily-record total for June 9. During the mid- to late-week period, as local downpours persisted across the South, daily record totals ranged from 3 to 5 inches in locations such as Victoria, TX (4.93 inches on June 12); New Iberia, LA (4.74 inches on June 13); Tupelo, MS (3.43 inches on June 14); and Shreveport, LA (3.01 inches on June 11). Heavier rain fell in parts of southern and eastern Texas, where San Antonio (6.11 inches on the 12th) endured its second-wettest June day, behind only 6.18 inches on June 3, 1951. San Antonio also set a one-hour station rainfall record for any time of year, with 3.98 inches falling from 3 to 4 am CDT. Locally heavy showers extended into parts of the Midwest, where daily record amounts reached 3.93 inches (on June 13) in Evansville, IN, and 1.46 inches (on June 12) in Watertown, SD. Despite all the rain, severe weather was mostly isolated, aside from a concentrated area of wind- and hail-related damage on the southern Plains on June 8.

15-21: A ridge of high pressure expanding eastward from the western U.S. delivered increasingly hot weather to parts of the Plains and Midwest, while gradually cutting off a previously wet pattern east of the Rockies. Still, before the transition occurred, weekly rainfall totaled at least 1 to 3 inches across parts of the central and eastern U.S.  However, some of the rain was produced by severe thunderstorms, which featured large hail, high winds, and isolated tornadoes. Some of the most significant severe weather occurred across the north-central U.S. on the night of June 20-21, when straight-line winds as high as 80 to 100 mph tore across the entire width of North Dakota. Meanwhile, most of the West experienced dry weather, although late-week developments included much-needed precipitation in the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies, as well as the establishment of a northward transport of tropical moisture into the southern Rockies and environs.

. As the week began, showers and thunderstorms peppered the central and eastern U.S. June 15 featured daily-record totals in Mount Ida, AR (2.61 inches); Wichita Falls, TX (2.44 inches); and Miles City, MT (1.32 inches). A day later, record-setting totals for June 16 included 3.22 inches in Elizabeth City, NC, and 2.36 inches in Hibbing, MN. Early June 17, powerful thunderstorms sweeping across the central Plains dumped 4.19 inches of rain on Wichita, KS, and produced a peak northerly wind gust to 101 mph. That marked the wettest June day in Wichita since 1965, when 4.65 inches fell on the 4th. Elsewhere in Kansas, a gust to 89 mph was clocked on June 17 in Hutchinson. Hit-or-miss thunderstorms continued for several days, with daily-record amounts for June 18 reaching 3.15 inches in Rochester, NY, and 1.86 inches in Chicago, IL. In Florida, Saint Petersburg collected a record-setting sum (3.91 inches) for June 19 and measured a weekly total of 6.54 inches. Late in the week, showers and thunderstorms raced eastward across the northern U.S. The June 20-21 high-wind event produced peak gusts of 84 mph in Buffalo, SD, and 73 mph in Fargo, ND. Reports from North Dakota’s Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) indicated gusts above 90 mph in parts of Grant, Emmons, Burleigh, Kidder, Stutsman, Barnes, and Cass Counties. One NDAWN site, near Linton, in Emmons County, measured 101 mph, while the airport site in Bemidji, MN, recorded 106 mph. Farther west, beneficial Northwestern showers resulted in a daily-record sum (0.89 inch on June 21) in Portland, OR.

22-28: Active weather prevailed in the southern Rockies and many areas from the Plains to the Atlantic Seaboard, although highly variable rainfall totals led to flash flooding in a few spots and mostly dry conditions in others. Some of the heaviest rain fell in a partial “ring of fire” configuration from the southern Rockies into the upper Midwest, as monsoon-related moisture wrapped around western and northern periphery of a ridge of high pressure parked for several days over the middle Atlantic States.

Variable rain fell during the week nearly everywhere from the Rockies eastward. During the last 9 days of the month, rainfall totaled 3.06 inches in Roswell, NM, with most (3.08 inches) falling from June 22-25. Similarly, 3.14 inches fell in Clayton, NM, from June 23-26, aided by a daily-record sum (2.14 inches) on the first day of the wet spell. Meanwhile, heavy rain also soaked the upper Midwest, where Madison, WI, collected a record-setting sum of 2.48 inches on June 23. Elsewhere in Wisconsin, La Crosse received 4.44 inches of rain from June 23-26. Thunderstorms also peppered the Plains, where daily-record amounts for June 24 reached 3.80 inches in Imperial, NE, and 1.55 inches in Dalhart, TX. On the 25th, Grand Island, NE, was inundated with 6.41 inches of rain, marking the wettest June day on record in that location (previously, 4.18 inches on June 15, 1990). In fact, the only wetter day in Grand Island was May 11, 2005, when 6.50 inches fell. Heavy rain also continued to pound the upper Midwest on June 25, when daily-record totals climbed to 2.31 inches in Wausau, WI, and 1.62 inches in Mitchell, SD. Late in the week, heavier showers shifted eastward, with daily record totals being set in locations such as Battle Creek, MI (1.46 inches on June 27), and Martinsburg, WV (1.73 inches on June 28).

Jim G. Munley, jr.
http://www.jimmunleywx.com