Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.

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June was a hot, wet month in Roanoke, but a warm, dry month in Blacksburg.

Dating back to the late 1940s, it was the second-hottest June on record at the Roanoke airport. The average temperature of 75.9 degrees has only been exceeded in one previous June on record: 77.8 degrees in 1952.

Roanoke's average high temperature in June was 87.3 degrees -- also exceeded only by June 1952, when the average high was nearly 91 degrees. The high hit 90 in Roanoke on l1 days this June, and reached at least 80 on every other day except one, when the high was 79. The high was 95 or 96 on five consecutive days from June 6 to June 10.

We often think of the words "hot" and "dry" as being linked. Yet, while Roanoke's June temperature averaged 4 degrees above normal, the airport collected 4.64 inches of rain -- almost an inch above normal for the month.

Contrast that with Blacksburg, which was a little less warm relative to normal and much drier.

Blacksburg's average June temperature of 69.6 was almost 3 degrees above normal. Its June rain total of 2.27 inches was less than half that of Roanoke's and 1.66 inches below normal for the month.

Blacksburg collected just .11 inch of rain on June 3, when a rare, tornadic supercell thunderstorm dumped 1.05 inches at Roanoke's airport. Blacksburg got just .60 inch out of June 22 thunderstorms, while Roanoke got more than double that at 1.25 inches.

Over the course of 30 days, 30 miles can make a lot of difference.