(Radio Iowa) – This primary election day is forecast to be the hottest day of the year so far, with highs hitting the 90s across much of Iowa for the first time in 2020. That’s a big contrast to the just-ended month of May which wrapped up cooler than normal, according to state climatologist Justin Glisan. “We were about two-and-a-half degrees below average across the state and colder than average across the Midwest,” Glisan says. “We had a lot of cloudy days, a lot of daily highs that were below average.”

As for precipitation across Iowa, Glisan says May was fairly typical. “We’re looking at about four or four-and-a-half inches of rainfall across the state, which is about average,” Glisan says. “There are sections of the state in which we have drier-than-normal conditions. That’s where we saw some D-zero introduced by the U.S. Drought Monitor. D-zero is not drought. It’s abnormal dryness.”

Forecasting models are showing inconclusive predictions for Iowa’s weather during June, as some are indicating a warmer, drier month ahead while others show it’ll be cooler and wetter.  “Typically, when we’re in the summertime when we do see wetter-than-normal conditions, that’s tightly coupled with cooler-than-average conditions,” Glisan says. “There is an expectation that perhaps June could be warm and then we get to near-normal or slightly cooler conditions moving into July and August.”

The first day of summer arrives June 20th.