MONTHLY WEATHER SUMMARY
By Jan Null
California State Climatologist, California Department of Water Resources
June 2005

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June 2005 will go into the record books as a cool month across the Golden State with both average maxima and average temperatures were well below normal across all of California. It was also relatively damp over the northern half of the state while the southern half was dry.

The longwave pattern for the month was a continuation of the general West Coast troughiness that had persisted for several months. A strong shortwave trough embedded in the flow brought widespread rain to northern and north central California on the 8th and 9th with substantial amounts at many locations. Storm totals in the Coast Range, Siskiyous and Northern Sierra Nevada were generally in the 1 to 2 inch range with lower elevation storm accumulations in the one to two thirds of an inch range. June 8th saw daily precipitation records set at Eureka and Sacramento with 0.34 and 0.36 inches respectively. On the 9th as the storm moved south there were records at San Francisco, San Francisco Airport (SFO) and Salinas. San Francisco's new record of 0.67 inches was the most significant while SFO and Salinas both set records with 0.16 inches.

A second, colder trough on June 16th and 17th brought not only light to moderate rain to the north half of the state but also several inches of snow down to about 5000 feet near Mount Shasta and 6000 feet in the Sierra Nevada. This weather system also some record cold temperatures to several regions of California. There were record lows at Sandberg (40 degrees), Santa Barbara (48), Pierce College (46) and Los Angeles International Airport (55) as well as low maxima at Sacramento (66), Sacramento Executive Airport (65), Bakersfield (77) and Red Bluff (68).

Regional monthly maximum temperatures were all below normal with the greatest anomalies in the Sacramento (-6.0 degrees) and San Joaquin (-4.3) drainages. Other regional anomalies in the state ranged from -3.5 to -4.0 degrees. Another indicator of the coolness of the month was the paucity of 90 degree days. San Jose had no 90 degree days compared to an average of almost four for the month. This makes it the 5th longest into the year that San Jose has gone without reaching 90 degrees. Sacramento reached 90 on only 4 days, well below their average of 12. In Fresno the mercury only reached 90-degree on 12 days compared to an average of 18.

Monthly rainfall across the north half of the state ranged from 497% of normal in the North Coast drainage to 256% in the Northeast and Sacramento drainages. Meanwhile the San Joaquin, South Coast and Southeast Deserts averaged from 1% to 25% of normal.


Page last updated 6/14/05.