Officially, 0.35" of rain fell Tuesday at Sikorsky Memorial Airport. That boosted May's total rainfall to 4.25" and nearly two inches above normal (2.57") through May 22. It also helped close the yearly deficit gap to under four inches. Since January 1, we've received over a foot (12.82") of precipitation, still much lower than the normal amount (16.64") through Tuesday. Yesterday was also the 12th day with measured rain this month.
Ralph Fato of Norwalk wrote, " It hasn't stopped raining all day. This is nuts. I'm at 7.00" for the month here in Norwalk." Yes, some parts of southwestern Connecticut have seen even more rain, especially the extreme southwestern corner, where the heaviest rain fell Monday. Ralph also pointed something else out. After looking at the weather record book, he noticed that the rainfall amounts in May have increased each year since 2007.
Ralph created this graph illustrating the sky cover for the month of May over the last five years, including the rain total for each month. The colors of blue (clear), gray (partly cloudy), white (cloudy), and green (rain) represent the weather for the number of days which are labeled. We still need 1.37" of rain through the end of May for that trend to continue. Last year's total of 5.61" was helped in no small part by back-to-back days of record rain.
Here are the rainfall totals for each of the last five years in May at Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford:
- 2007: 1.05"
- 2008: 2.44"
- 2009: 2.93"
- 2010: 3.16"
- 2011: 5.61"
Can the monthly rain top last year's impressive amount? Although there aren't any major storms in the immediate future, we will see scattered showers and thunderstorms the next couple of days. Of course, any thunderstorm may be accompanied by heavy rain. The Memorial Day holiday weekend, though, looks fairly good. Although it won't be nearly as perfect as last weekend, a weather front will be in the area, causing scattered showers or thunderstorms later Saturday and Monday.
Paul
