June 2023 Weather Recap: Dry, Below Average Temperatures ... and Smoky Conditions
After a May characterized by consistent sunny skies, June 2023 will likely be remembered for the one day, 6/7, when smoke from Canadian wildfires shrouded the City in an otherworldly orange haze. This overshadowed the fact that June was the driest since 1999 (with 1.62" measured it became the 19th driest June overall) and was the coolest June since 2009 (two degrees below average). Besides 6/7 there were other days that experienced low visibility because of the wildfires including the last three days of the month. Other June highlights included:
- The first two days of June were hot and sunny (with highs of 87° and 91°) but then the rest of the month was 2.6 degrees cooler than average, with only five days having above average temperatures.
- Less than 48 hours after a high of 91° on 6/2, the low on 6/4 was 49° - the first reading in the 40s in June since 2000.
- There were just nine days with highs of 80° or warmer, about half the average number of days (17). This was the fewest since 1985 which also had nine days (June 1958 had eight).
- June's first day with a low in the 70s was on 6/25 and came more than two months after the year's first such low on 4/14 (the earliest date for a low this warm).
- June and May were both cooler than average, the first time back to back months were below average since April and May 2020. This was also the second month in a row with less than two inches of rainfall (and it was the fourth year in a row in which June had less than three inches of rain). June 2023's rainfall was nearly three inches below average.
- 2023 became the 11th year in which three of the years' first six months had less than two inches of rain.
Here are June recaps from the previous seven years: