For June standards across the Northeast, it was a cool and quiet start to summer. Slightly below average temperatures and the lack of any extreme severe outbreaks, especially across New England, painted much of the month. Indeed, the lack of rain furthest north and east exacerbated an ongoing drought heading out of spring and into summer.
Right off the bat, lingering fronts on the 1st converged on Virginia and southern MD the following day to cause a series of severe storms that brought lots of wind damage and even hail. High pressure then dialed things back and things dried out for the remainder of the week. Warmth and moisture returned by the 8th, which immediately sparked yet more severe weather between southern NJ and Virginia. This time, an EF-1 tornado struck Pine Hill, NJ and damaged several outbuildings, while a short-lived EF-0 grazed near Mechanicsville, MD.
Through the middle of the month, smaller, progressive systems trekked across the region. Many of these targeted the Mid-Atlantic or farther south, leaving New England increasingly thirsty for rain. Accordingly, since these boundaries sat around the Delmarva peninsula, a small outbreak of severe weather hit Virginia on the 17th, resulting in localized wind damage and hail. The day itself was quite hot as well in the Mid-Atlantic as the mercury in Washington, D.C. hit 99 degrees, breaking a daily record.
In quite a whiplash however, a remarkable cool down came only a day later thanks to a strong cold front. Essentially, this left the second half of June unseasonably cool from the Northeast even into the southeastern US. Many cities broke record lows on the 19th and 20th, including Binghamton, NY as they cooled to just 43 degrees and even Baltimore, MD barely managed to crack 50 degrees! Indeed, many stations fell 5 to 10 degrees below normal for days up until the 25th, when temperatures briefly spiked into the 80s and 90s. The final week of June only saw one more round of storms on the 22nd, once again in Virginia and primarily producing wind damage. Despite several more disturbances, June ended on an unusually quiet note as high pressure persisted.
With the lack of substantial rainfall, a drought had been declared across New England in late spring and spread further through the month of June. Except for Providence, RI that received just over an inch of their normal rainfall, all other cities experienced deficits (and continue to into July), some of them by nearly half. For example, Hartford only received 2.59” by the end of June compared to the usual 4.28”. While the Mid-Atlantic also lacked decent rain (Philadelphia, PA was an exception), true drought conditions have thankfully been narrowly avoided thus far but a wetter pattern will be needed to keep this at bay through into July and August.
