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Five Mile Creek

The June 2026 Edition

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Monthly

June ran about as warm as usual and came in wet, and Five Mile Creek rose over the high water line twice.

This edition was put together on September 15, 2026, after the month was over, from the records as they stood. Its calls were worked out by the same rule as every other month, from what was on file before each month began.

June along the creek

Weather

Our station
Hottest96° on Jun 30
Coldest54° on Jun 4
Rain10.37 in
Days of 90° or more13

The average of the highs and lows came to 77.6 degrees, 0.7 degrees cooler than normal for June.

Our station measured 10.37 inches of rain, against a normal of 4.78 at the Birmingham airport. The wettest day was June 20, with 4.83 inches.

At the Birmingham airport, whose record goes back to 1930, it was the seventh wettest June on the books.

Weather log

The creek

Five Mile Creek at Republic
Highest8.47 ft on Jun 20
Lowest1.23 ft on Jun 7
Days at high water5

It reached the high water line, 3.5 feet at Republic, on five days, in two separate rises.

Its highest reading, 8.47 feet on June 20, was higher than the 4.22 feet the creek reaches in a typical June since 2008.

The high water line is the one the masthead uses. It is not a flood stage, because this gauge does not have one.

Creek log

Sightings

Lower creek
New to the roll18

18 species were recorded along the lower creek for the first time on file, among them Alabama Map Turtle, Banded Tussock Moth, and Pale-bordered Field Cockroach.

Nature Watch

How the calls did

The calls for June

Temperature
NOAANo call
FIVEMILENo call

Set against the same month in 1991 to 2020 at the Birmingham airport, June finished in the warm third for temperature and the wet third for rain.

NOAA's outlook, issued May 31, had no lean either way on temperature, so there was nothing to score.

On rain it leaned slightly toward a wetter than normal month, and that was right too.

FIVEMILE made no call for June, because the record had no clear lean after a middle May.

Since August 2014, NOAA's temperature outlook for these three towns has been right 62 times and missed 33 times, with no lean 46 times. FIVEMILE has not made a call yet since January 2026. A call made by guessing would be right about one time in three.

July ahead

The outlook

July
NOAA40% warmer
FIVEMILEWarmer

NOAA's Climate Prediction Center gives these three towns a 40 percent chance of a warmer than normal July, and no lean either way on rain.

FIVEMILE's call is a warmer than normal July. After a warm June, July has come in warm in 14 of 26 years at the airport.

FIVEMILE does not call rain. In the airport record a wet month is followed by a wet one no more often than chance would have it.

Normal July

Birmingham airport
Normal high90° to 91°
Normal low71° to 72°
Normal rain5.42 in
Record high107° in 1930
Record low51° in 1967

Normal highs at the Birmingham airport rise from 90 to 91 degrees over July, and normal rain for the month is 5.42 inches.

The sun

July
Daylight on the 1st14 h 21 m
On the 31st13 h 49 m

The days lose 32 minutes of daylight over July, from 14 hours and 21 minutes on the 1st to 13 hours and 49 minutes on the 31st.

Almanac

The old belief

The dog days

The dog days are the hottest stretch of the summer.

The dog days run from July 3 to August 11, named for Sirius, the Dog Star, which lines up with the sun in the middle of them.

The airport record can test it. It holds when the hottest day of the summer, June through September, falls between July 3 and August 11. When the hottest reading is tied, any tied day inside the dog days counts. In the 96 years on the record, it held in 43.

Farmers' Almanac ↗

Dates in July

Calendar →
JulThursdays
MarketGardendale

Gardendale Farmers Market

Growers set up on Thursday mornings at Bill Noble Park in Gardendale, which is close enough to be an ordinary errand from any of the three towns. It runs from nine until one, May through September.
Jul01
Civic

Jefferson County tornado siren test

Jefferson County tests its outdoor warning sirens on the first Wednesday of each month at 10:00 AM. No action needed, it is a scheduled test.
Jul02
CivicGraysville

Graysville City Council meeting

Graysville's council meets twice a month, on the first and third Thursday, at 6:00 PM at Graysville City Hall.
Jul06
CivicBrookside

Brookside Town Council meeting

Brookside's council meets on the first Monday of the month at 6:00 PM at Brookside Town Hall. When that Monday falls on a holiday the meeting moves to the second Monday.
Jul14
CivicCardiff

Cardiff City Council meeting

Cardiff City Council meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 6:00 PM.
Jul16
CivicGraysville

Graysville City Council meeting

Graysville's council meets twice a month, on the first and third Thursday, at 6:00 PM at Graysville City Hall.
Jul17
Civic

Back to school sales tax holiday

No state sales tax on clothes, school supplies, and computers from Friday morning through Sunday night, and most cities and counties around here waive their share as well. It is the third weekend in July.
Alabama Department of Revenue ↗
Jul20
Sky

Perseid meteor shower begins building

Peaks in mid-August around the Feast of St. Lawrence.
Wikipedia ↗

Where this comes from The month's weather is the FIVEMILE weather station. Normals, ranks, records and the thirds a month is scored in are the official National Weather Service record kept at the Birmingham airport since 1930, set against 1991 to 2020. The creek is the USGS gauge on Fivemile Creek near Republic. The outlook is the monthly outlook from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, read at the middle of the three towns. The stories are the ones the news page ran, the sightings are iNaturalist's research grade records, and the dates are the calendar's. FIVEMILE's call is a rule written down in advance: it looks at how the month just gone finished and at what followed every earlier year that started the same way. Every sentence here was written ahead of time and filled in from those records, and no edition is changed after it runs.