June one of warmest on record across Missouri; Southeast Missouri unusually dry

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- June 2010 was the warmest June in decades, according to a University of Missouri climatologist.

"You have to go back 57 years to find a warmer June," said Pat Guinan with the MU Extension Commercial Agriculture program. Temperatures ran 4 to 6 degrees above normal over much of the state, with temperatures 6 to 7 degrees warmer in Southeast Missouri.

Cape Girardeau reached an average high of 91.3 degrees, with 19 days above 90 degrees.

"Preliminary data shows the month of June will be the seventh warmest in 116 years of weather records," Guinan told MU Extension plant science specialists in a weekly teleconference. "Southeast Missouri will probably have its first- or second-warmest June ever."

However, rainfall totals for June are at the extremes, depending on the location.

"North Missouri was extremely wet while south Missouri was extremely dry," Guinan said. "The weather station at Bloomfield recorded zero rainfall the whole month. Lack of rain in June is highly unusual."

Cape Girardeau received 1.66 inches of rain, short of the average of 3.43 inches for June, according to the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport weather station.

Rainfall has caused repeated flooding of crop fields along streams and rivers across northern Missouri.

"Some fields have been underwater four times. Now they may be flooded again," said Bill Wiebold, MU Extension crops specialist.

Chances for flooding will remain at least through the first half of July, Guinan said.

Gulf of Mexico moisture and perhaps some remnants of Hurricane Alex are expected to move north and interact with a front over the Midwest in the next several days, Guinan said. That could mean significant rainfall from Texas to Wisconsin, he said.

The call for rain was welcomed by regional specialists in the dry southwest Missouri counties. However, more rain on the Missouri River watershed was not good news for crop specialists in northwest Missouri. More rain will only add to the flow of water now being released by the Corps of Engineers into the Missouri River.

Farmers working in low-lying areas of northern Missouri must continue to monitor rainfall forecasts, Guinan said.

Guinan said reports from Crowley Ridge in Southeast Missouri, where there is little irrigation, indicate corn yields have already been cut by half.

Ashleigh Day contributed to this report.