June weather was a tad moist

The month of June was a good one in Southeastern Montana. Plentiful rainfall made for high growth potential in crops and grasses, as fields of clover turned portions of the countryside into an expanse of yellow bloom.

One potential downside occurred for ranchers looking to put up their crops: the cold temperatures of winter and spring led to a delay in many crops coming up, which in turn led to a late start to haying. When combined with thunderstorms coming through and dumping copious amounts of localized moisture on a fairly regular basis, high humidity, and days where the sun doesn't come out from behind the clouds until mid-afternoon, some ranchers are currently stuck with hay on the ground that simply refuses to dry out.

Over the past week, numerous storms have taken turns dousing different parts of the area. On June 26th, storms raged across the county. One storm, which cut a path from Birney to Otter to Moorhead and on towards Biddle, dropped up to baseball sized hail on Bowers' Ranch, with more large hail around Otter and Biddle, per storm reports.

Another storm built over central PR County on the 26th, dousing eastern portions of the county, with reports of over two inches of moisture near Hammond.

Yet another storm on June 30th cut across the central portions of the county. Dry creek beds turned into raging torrents, as reports of up to 4.25" of precip, with quarter size hail came in from Pumpkin Creek and Home Creek, accompanied by high winds.

Cache Creek, south of Broadus, ran over its banks, and flooded alfalfa meadows. Just over an inch of water fell from the sky in Broadus, with locally heavier amounts to the south.

For the month of June, Broadus averaged 80.0 degrees for a high, compared to a normal of 79.2. Lows were within a half degree of normal, with 50.5 as an average.

High temps for the month were recorded on June 6th and 7th, at 91 degrees, with the mercury dipping to 37 on June 9th.

Precipitation for the month in Broadus stood at an officially measured 1.43" compared to 2.25" normally. This measurement is a bit misleading, as the readings are taken at 4:00 PM (for some reason). That meant the rain which fell on the evening of June 30th wasn't officially recorded in June. That amount came out to 1.01" at the Sheriff's office, making a total for the month of 2.44".

So far this summer, there have been a handful of fires responded to by PR Volunteers and Ft. Howes fire crews. Lightning strikes across the Custer Forest caused a few starts in mid to late June, while the largest fire so far this year – the 56 acre Sartin Fire, was caused by a burning coal seam, which burned to the surface on June 12th, approximately 15 miles East of Ashland.