June forecast: Will beneficial rain arrive before summer?
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- As we work our way through a relatively dry May to date, we look ahead to the last month of severe weather season, June.
June also usually wraps up our primary wet weather season before spring rains shut off as summer's hot and mostly dry weather settles in.
The preliminary June outlook was released by the Climate Prediction Center Thursday and it could be worse, but it could also be better.
June outlook
From a temperature perspective, June is leaning toward being warmer than normal with odds heavily stacked toward a warmer normal in areas southwest of Austin and also toward the Arizona/New Mexico state line.
The rainfall forecast points toward near normal rainfall for most of Central Texas with a drier than normal forecast just northwest of our area.
What's normal in June?
June average highs begin in the low 90s before climbing into the mid 90s by the end of the month.
Average lows start in the low 70s and climb into the mid 70s.
On average it's our third wettest month of the year, but often a sizeable chunk of June's rain comes in the first half of the month.
In Depth: Flash flood season peaks in June
While May is notoriously our peak of severe weather season, June is actually the peak of flash flood season.
Be sure to watch our KXAN First Warning Weather Team Summer Outlook Thursday at 6 p.m. to see what factor's we're looking into leading up to our hottest season.