Relatively Quiet May Slightly Warmer & Much Drier Than Normal

The best word to describe last month's weather across southwestern Connecticut is 'uneventful.' The month of May ended on a hot note with a high temperature climbing to 91 degrees last Friday afternoon, which was the warmest reading of the month. Overall, May was slightly warmer than normal with an average temperature of 59.4 degrees. That's just 0.3 degrees above average. Nearly three inches of precipitation fell last month, which was well below the 3.70" normal for May. 

Eleven of the 31 days last month were cooler-than-normal, including five straight days with below average temperatures from May 24 through May 28. There was a stretch of three straight cooler-than-normal days from May 13 through May 15. The average daily temperature for May 25 was 14 degrees below normal, making it the coldest day of the month, climatologically. The coldest temperature was 40 degrees the morning of May 14.

The first six days of May were dry. However, twelve of the next 25 days featured measured rain. There was never more than a half-inch of rain on any one day, though. There were four straight days with measured rain from May 22 through May 25, and four of five wet days from May 8 through May 12. The wettest day of the month happened on May 24 when 0.49" fell. The greatest 24 hour total happened May 23 and 24 with 0.83" of rain.

According to the monthly climatological report from the National Weather Service, there were 15 clear days, 10 partly cloudy days, and six mostly cloudy days in May. There were 12 days with at least one-hundredth of an inch of rain, and eight days with at least a tenth of an inch. The lowest barometric pressure was 29.66" on May 12.

Paul