The key takeaway from this June was below average temperatures and essentially no rainfall. This is the first June with below average temperatures since 2009 and was the 44^th warmest June in Tucson since records began.

Last year (2022) was the 5^th warmest June and two years ago (2021) was the hottest June on record. It was nice break this June. The average high temperature for the month was 1 degree below average and the average low temperature was 2.2 degrees below average. The cooler-than-average temperatures were mainly during the first ½ of the month. Several of these days only saw highs in the 80s. By the end of the month, the airport recorded two days (25^th and 26^th) with highs of 111 degrees.

As stated earlier, essentially no rain fell during June, with only very light amounts in the north-central part of Tucson, in the Catalina Foothills (rainlog.org). The airport’s 30-year average rainfall for June is 0.23”, and this is the 16^th June on record that the airport recorded no rainfall. My 13-year June average rainfall is 0.39” in central Del Lago, and this was the 3^rd June that I recorded no rainfall. The first half of the year is now complete and ranks as the 36^th warmest at the airport year to date, and is also below average.

Recently, we have had many top 10 first 6 months so it has been much nicer this year. In addition, rainfall for the first 6 months of the year is slightly above average. I typically record three times as much rain the second half of the year than the first half. Much of this is due to the monsoon (July-September). Speaking of the monsoon, there were a few moisture intrusions in June, but nothing very long lasting. The predictions for July are hotter and drier than normal and at the time of this writing on June 14^th, it has been very hot in southern Arizona. It has also been very humid during the second week of July causing low temperatures at the airport to only cool down to the 80s. In addition, Phoenix has seen several days where the low has only cooled to the 90s.

For most of the Tucson metro area, little to no rainfall has fallen during the first two weeks of July. However, parts of the Vail area were lucky enough to get a major storm the evening of July 11^th. I recorded 2.00” exactly during that one storm in central Del Lago, the most rainfall that was reported in the entire Tucson metro area. ½’ to 1” rain amounts fell to my north all the way to Civano and parts of Corona also received rainfall that night.

The last two monsoons were great in Vail. We shall see how this one turns out. For next month, I will give a full report for July and discuss how the monsoon is going.

John Simpson has lived in southern Arizona the past 34 years and Vail for 18 of those years. John has a bachelor’s degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Missouri and a master’s degree in Atmospheric Physics from the U of A. He loves exploring the outdoors with his family and photographing weather and the beauty of southern Arizona.