June Was A Roller Coaster
June weather was “very variable to say the least,” Richard G. Hendrickson, the United States Cooperative weather observer in Bridgehampton, wrote in his monthly weather report.
In the first week of last month, on June 5, the high was just 63 degrees, and cool temps of 65 and 66 were recorded again on the 17th and 18th, but on June 20 and 21, Mr. Hendrickson recorded a sweltering 91 degrees, and on June 22 it was 92.
“It could be a hot summer! Yet, what do I know? Such is the variation in weather on eastern Long Island,” wrote the 90-something weather observer, a retired farmer who has been compiling weather data since he was a teenager.
By June 18, he had recorded six days when the high temperature for the day was only in the 60s. “Cool,” he said, “but not a record.”
The coolest nighttime temperature last month came on June 15, when it got down to 38.
“Rainfall for this June was very close to the long-term average of 3.5 to 4 inches.” The total for last month was 3.91 inches, with the heaviest rains coming on June 13 — 1.82 inches — and June 25 — 1.79 inches.
Mr. Hendrickson recorded no severe thunder and lightning squalls to mar graduations or graduation parties. “We were lucky this year. Lawns are still green, but summer is on its way. Stay out of open areas during the thunder and lightning periods. Reef your sail and stay in the harbor,” he cautioned.
In June he recorded 11 clear, 7 partly cloudy, and 12 cloudy days. Wind came from the southwest on 9 days, from the west on 5 days, from the northwest on 5 days, from the east and northeast on the remaining days.
“At this writing, we should all keep an eye on the sky, thermometer, and ocean,” Mr. Hendrickson said. Summer breezes are mainly from the southwest, but because of summer heat, “summer squalls can come from any direction and velocity.”
“I believe that due to our warmer summer weather, our ocean needs constant attention if we are to use it safely as our summer playground,” he wrote. “It is in a state of change in many ways, due to our global temperature change. . . . Use care on nature’s ground and the waters of eastern Long Island — they often change like the weather, and it is the weather that changes them!”