A well-prepared spectator watches the action at Friday's "Sticks on First" road hockey tournament held in support of the YMCA of Medicine Hat on First Street downtown. June has seen above average amounts of rain, and already four times more precipitation than the same month last year.--News Photo Collin Gallant
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June is the wettest month in Medicine Hat, but this year hasn’t produced a record rainfall, though there is still time.
Before Friday’s drizzling, the total rainfall in Medicine Hat for the month measured 94 millimetres, or just under four inches, through 23 days.
That’s just above average (88 mm) and makes this the fourth rainiest June over the last 20 years.
It comes one year after June 2021 was the driest in modern Environment Canada records. Only 15 mm, about one-quarter the average, fell in the city in that period to begin a scorching dry summer.
Before this year, Medicine Hat hadn’t reached the monthly average rainfall since 2014.
Record June rainfall amount was accumulated 165.6 mm in 2005. That was a river flood year that featured almost two inches falling on June 17 alone, though precipitation in the greater region is a larger factor in river levels.
Locally, in 2009 a total of 104.4 mm fell in the month, and 101.8 mm in 2006.
The 2013 flood year only saw the local rainfall total of 41 mm only hit half the average, but the city was swiped by major storm system that caused overland flooding in the Taber area before nestling up to the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains. That caused flooding on rivers that run through Calgary, High River and eventually Medicine Hat.
The second and third driest Junes over the past 20 years, were in 2015 and 2018, when 26 mm and 27 mm, respectively, were recorded.
One inch is roughly equal to 25 millimetres.
