Weather Eye: Next couple of days will break up June swoon

As we approach the beginning of the summer season, our weather will continue on a typical roller coaster ride similar to last year. That means a couple nice, sunny, warm days and then cloudy, cool and damp days. Monday we struggled to reach the mid 60s — some 10 degrees below average.

There were also some very heavy downpours around the area as well. Maybe you didn’t get one at your house, but those that did, it may have been close to a frog strangler, my favorite kind of rain showers.

By Wednesday, we should be up close to 80 degrees continuing into Thursday before a major cool-down. The cold air aloft late in the week could kick off some thunderstorms, mostly over the mountains, and maybe a dash of fresh snow on the peaks, too.

We are still running more than two degrees below normal on the average mean temperatures and our rainfall is running a little less than one inch above average. With no big warm-up in sight, June will most likely go down as a cool and damp month in the record books.

Summer officially begins on Wednesday at 4:09 p.m. local time, just in time for a couple of really nice days. I had a few folks ask me Monday, “Hey Pat, when will it be above 80 degrees again?” I began thinking about the old adage that summer weather really begins after July 5th, so I threw out this reply: “Oh let’s see, how about 3:30 p.m. on July 15” All in jest, but if you can’t control the weather, have a little fun with it.

See you on the flip side of the summer solstice.

Patrick Timm is a local weather specialist. His column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Reach him at Weather Systems.