Ah June, the month when summer officially begins.  We have already had a heat wave in a few places and certainly hot weather all around.  Now the pattern looks like it is going to go into a cooler and damper mode.  

I know when I write something like that the first thing you might think is that it is going to rain the rest of the month.  While there certainly have been June’s where the weather doesn’t cooperate, this doesn’t appear to be a washout of a month.   That said, the pattern is definitely going to be undergoing a change.

June is also the start of hurricane season.  Hurricanes develop in the early part of the season in different spots than they typically do during say September.    This time of the year, and again in October and November, the Gulf of Mexico is often a spot for tropical activity. 

Today we are watching an area of disturbed weather which could become our first named storm.  Andrea starts the list this year and then goes through Barry, Chantal, Dorian, Erin, Fernand, Gabrielle, Humberto, Ingrid, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Nestor, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah,  Sebastien, Tanya, Van, and Wendy.  

Names are decided years in advance by the World Meteorological Organization.  The names represent the countries adjacent to the body of water the storms will occur.  Atlantic names have a Caribbean and American flavor to them.  Names like Irene, Sandy, Andrew, Carol, Diane, Hazel, David etc. have been retired as those storms were deadly.  

Our weather towards the end of the may have a tropical connections as an area of tropical weather could get involved with a system moving across the northern part of the country.  Sometimes, these systems can pull up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico.  This type of pattern can lead to periods of heavy tropical downpours.  The most likely time for this will be Friday night or Saturday and we will know much more tomorrow and Thursday.  Suffice to say, the first part of the weekend isn’t looking like great weather.

After the system clears the area we will have at least a day of dry weather and this will give us a better second half of the weekend.  More unsettled and somewhat cool air continues into early next week with additional rounds of showers.

Beyond that, I don’t see any major outbreaks of heat on the horizon although June is not typically a month of extreme heat in New England.  

 

Let me back up to our weather the next few days.  High pressure stays in control with lots of sunshine and dry cool temperatures.  As a matter of fact, some inland valley areas will be in the upper 30s Wednesday morning.  Highs the next few days will average in the lower 70s.   As clouds increase Thursday, it will be cooler and a few showers could break out by the end of the day.  After that our eyes turn south to see how much rain we get for the start  of the weekend.

Gardening this week You might not know it, but a disease that is affecting impatiens is going to be a problem again later this summer. This bacteria, which came over from Europe two years ago is now in over 30 states. I recommend not planting impatiens as the spores are airborne and likely will kill your plants later in July and early August just as they are looking great. I did a video on some alternatives to them here. Check it out.

 

 

I’ll be updating the forecast throughout the week on Twitter at @growingwisdom Please follow me there. Feel free to comment or ask questions too.