With just a few days left in June, the month delivered almost twice the amount of rain as normal (83.5 millimetres), and given the propensity for end-of-day thundershowers, this will likely be exceeded by the time July 1 rolls around. Hail was also reported in various locations, marking apples and shredding corn leaves.
June has delivered 151 mm of rain so far this month, and many local areas received more – in the case of Montreal and the South Shore, much more. The forecast for the last few days of June and into early July is for hot weather (30+ degrees Celsius) and therefore likely more thunderstorms at the end of the day.
The average temperature stayed steady at 19.8 C, compared to the normal for the whole month of June at 18.6 C, and with hot weather over the last few days of the month, the average will certainly increase.
In lockstep with the above-average temperature, the corn heat unit (CHU) count is accumulating nicely, with 650 CHU so far in June. Again, with more hot weather in the forecast, the CHU count will certainly exceed the normal accumulation of 655 CHU for the entire month. The total CHUs since the start on May 16 has now reached 965 CHU, the result of which is the rows of corn are jumping in height across the Valley.
The soybeans don’t look quite as good, as they have suffered more from the excess of moisture, as have the strawberries which resulted in a surge being available on the market in mid-June, only for supplies to drop off by the end of the month.
The forecast for July is for average temperatures during the day with warmer-than-average nights. There will be some rain and showers just before the middle of the month, but otherwise it will be a much drier month than June.