If you thought the month of June was exceptionally wet then your address is probably somewhere in south Airdrie.  If you thought the month was normal for the amount of rain then chances are you live in the north part of the city.  

This year, June provided a real glimpse into just how one storm, and where it released the brunt of its fury, can actually make on rainfall totals.

On June 13th a massive hailstorm rolled through northwest Calgary and the Calgary Airport, site of the official weather station for Airdrie.  The storm decimated homes and vehicles and brought with it between 50 and 60 mms of rain.  Some Airdrie neighbourhoods were also hit by the storm, although most not as severely as Calgary.  Other parts of Airdrie were missed by the giant storm.

That, says Environment Canada Warning Preparedness Meteorologist Blaine Lowry, means that, officially, June 2020 was the ninth wettest on record.  "The Calgary Airport weather station reported 172.4 mms of precipitation.  Normal for the month is 94 mms."

Lowry then goes on to explain how missing out on one storm can really impact the numbers. "There's a (weather) station just northwest of Airdrie, kinda between Airdrie and Crossfield, just a little bit west of Highway Two that only picked up 106.1 mms of precip for the the month of June.  So still wetter than average but a little closer to normal."

Normal is also how Lowry describes June from a temperature point of view.   "The average temperature was only .2 degrees off normal."

The first half of July is likely to continue the "wetter than normal" trend.  The back half of the month looks somewhat drier.  'Somewhat' being the key word.  "There's some hints that it may begin to drty out a bit," Lowry says.  "Probably just near normal precipitation amounts."

Beside the June 13th storm, Airdrie was on the receiving end of numerous severe thunderstorm watches and warnings during the month.  Unfortunately for lovers of sunshine in the city, it might get worse. 

"Climatologically July is the most active month of the year in Alberta for thunderstorm and severe thunderstorm activity," explains Lowry.  "We typically see the severe thunderstorm activity taper off through the back half of August in Alberta.  Of course, if you've lived here for any length of time you know that the severe thunderstorm activity can continue even into September if the conditions are there."

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