A look back at one of the hottest Junes on record
SALT LAKE CITY ( ABC4 ) — We made it through June, Utah! This month was defined by record-breaking heat and an early destructive start to monsoon season.
June 21 through June 27 was a particularly eventful period as a strong monsoonal push brought turbulent weather to the Beehive State. Let's break it down!
Critical fire weather in southern Utah as cold front clips northern Utah
Most of the activity we saw was in the east where severe thunderstorms ravaged with golf ball-sized hail, howling winds, frequent lightning, and serious flash flooding.
On June 26, Kodachrome Basin State Park nearly doubled the old precipitation record of 0.32 inches, receiving a healthy 0.62 inches of rain. That was just the warmup for the next day.
On the 27, both Kanab and Scipio tripled their old records. Kanab replaced the old record of 0.19 inches with a dangerous 0.65 inches and Scipio tripled the 0.20-inch record with 0.60 inches.
June 21 was the only day with notable rainfall in Salt Lake City. Downtown measured half an inch of rain, which blew its old record of 0.14 inches out of the water.
Down the road at the Salt Lake International Airport, a total of 0.31 inches fell, which gives us the grand monthly total. The average total precipitation in June for Salt Lake is 0.95 inches, so we saw less than a third of the monthly average.
While the east was concerned with devastating flash flooding and severe storms, the west was more focused on the abnormally high heat.
Temperature records
On June 13, Downtown Salt Lake City climbed to a high of 100 degrees, breaking the 2018 record by four degrees and making it the first triple-digit day of the year!
To put it into perspective, Salt Lake City averages five triple-digit days a year with the average first 100-degree day on July 7 — but we've already seen four. Spanish Fork also hit triple digits, breaking the 1974 record by one degree.
The day prior also brought heat records. On June 12, downtown Salt Lake hit 96 degrees, which beat the old record by three degrees. BYU Provo and Kanab hit 100 degrees, while Eskdale reached 98 degrees — meaning all three beat their previous records by a single degree.
On June 6, St. George reached 108 degrees, which was one degree warmer than the 2016 record. Meanwhile, Cedar City and Kodachrome Basin reached 97 degrees, barely beating their 2006 records.
Temperature overview
With numbers like that, it's no surprise that this was one the hottest Junes on record. The only June hotter than this year was in 2021, which holds the record by 2.6 degrees — a huge margin.
The average temperature in Salt Lake — including highs and lows — came out to 77.6 degrees, whereas the 30-year average is 70.7 degrees.
St. Goerge was abnormally hot, too. This year was the third hottest June on record with an average temperature of 85.7 — only one degree shy of the record set in 1994.
We're kicking off July on a much cooler note with temperatures a few degrees below seasonal norms for the first week. We will see how long that pattern continues and what the new month will bring! See you in August!
