May Featured Wet & Warm Weather

If you thought last month was rainy and dreary, you're right. Nearly five inches of rain fell in May at Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford, which was nearly an inch above normal. In addition, the month was much warmer-than-normal, continuing a streak of 15 consecutive months with above-average temperatures across southwestern Connecticut. June will begin on a soggy note, too, with periods of moderate and heavy rain later tonight and early tomorrow.

Officially, 4.57" of rain fell last month, well above the 3.80" normal for May. Sixteen of the 31 days (52%) featured measured rain, including seven of the first ten days last month. In fact, each of the first four days delivered measured rain. Rain fell three straight days twice last month from May 8 through 10 and May 14 through 16. The greatest 24-hour rainfall happened May 9 and 10 (1.16"). If you're wondering, the wettest May happened in 1989 when nearly 10 inches (9.53") fell.

Despite the wetter-than-normal May, we're still well below normal for the year. Over the last three months since March 1, we've measured 8.58" of rain. That's still more than three inches (3.40") below the 11.98" normal through the same period. Since the beginning of the year, slightly more than 13 inches (13.14") has fallen, which is well below the 17.87" normal through May 31. Comparatively speaking, nearly 23 inches (22.96") fell during the first five months a year ago.

The average temperature last month was 62.9 degrees, which was nearly four degrees (+3.8) above the 59.1-degree normal average for the month. Incredibly, only four days were cooler-than-normal. The average daily temperature was at or above normal for 14 straight days from May 4 through May 17. The warmest stretch of the month happened the last week of May when three of the days featured daily average temperatures greater than 10 degrees above normal.

The warmest temperature last month was 85 degrees on May 26 and 29, and the coldest tempertaure was 45 degrees on May 12. The temperature range was a relatively narrow 45 degrees. The mercury climbed into the 80s four times last month, and there were 10 more days when temperatures reached 70 degrees or more. The average monthly temperature was just one-and-a-half degrees shy of the all-time warmest May on record (64.4 degrees in 1991).

Although we'll start the month of June on a relatively quiet note today, clouds will increase this afternoon. Rain will develop later this evening, and moderate-to-heavy rain can be expeced later tonight into tomorrow morning. The rain will taper to showers by early tomorrow afternoon, but not before an inch of rain is possible. Better weather will arrive by Sunday, but a shower or thunderstorm can't be ruled out during the afternoon.

Paul