Hot, Wet Start to Summer Not Necessarily A Harbinger of Things to Come

June will start like a firecracker with temps near 100 next week. The National Weather Service isn't convinced that will translate into a sizzling summer, though.

MITCHELL, SD (Mitchell Now) — A warm May is about to turn into a sizzling first half of June, but officials at the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls are not convinced that a sweltering summer is guaranteed.

Meteorologist Brittany Peterson says Mitchell had the thermometer top 90 degrees five times last month. The average is between once and twice in any given year. The middle of next week will threaten to break records. The high right now is forecast to be 99 degrees on Wednesday with a heat index over 105.

NWS projections show temps above average through June, but the meteorological summer period of June 1^st to August 31^st might not be. Models put the odds of a hot summer at a toss-up, which would suggest that July and August may end up surprising on the cool side.

The same can be said for rainfall. It’s been hit-or-miss the past week, but where storms have tracked, there has been an absolute deluge. McCook County was soaked to the tune of three inches on Sunday. Aberdeen in the northern part of the state has gotten five inches this week. Peterson expects the stormy pattern to hold through the first half of June. For the 90-day summer period, though, the belief is that region ends up drier than average. That’s less-than-welcome news as Mitchell entered summer already in a severe drought.