Cold weather in May (record, temperature, 2013, days)

[nei]

It's hard to get many days with highs below 60°F in May, though about half of the time May gets a frost. Here's one of the colder stretches of May I found in recent years. I don't know why I don't remember, I'm sure I noticed it then. Though I was probably used to cool weather so it didn't seem that shocking.

Weather History for Chicopee, MA | Weather Underground

May 9: 53/39
May 10: 58/36
May 11: 57/27
May 12: 48/35
May 13: 68/31

Actually, I remember being a rather warm spring otherwise. Remember the 90°F on May 2.

[mar89]

Record lowest min: 2.5°C in 1976
Record lowest max: 10.3°C in 1984
Coldest month: May 1991 with an average temperature of 13.8°C (8.7/18.2°C)

[Ariete]

Clima en Helsinki-Vantaa durante Mayo de 1980 - datos climáticos históricos

May 1980 was the coldest in the last 50 years, and what a horror show that appeared to be.

Recently we managed 5.5C highs in 2010, but got some compensation just a few days after that: Synop report summary

May normally has one or two air frosts, and seldom manage without a single one, but more than three is also quite unusual.

[chicagogeorge]

A cold May is the ultimate slap in the face..... Our warm season is short enough.


Coldest May on record in Chicago is from 1882 with a mean temp of 51.5F/10.8C but that was when temps were officially take right on the lakeshore.

Coolest May at ORD is 1983




Midway which has a longer POR coolest is 1935 with an average high of 16.4C which is absolutely ridiculous.



^^

Looking at that year, June was extremely cool too!

Warmest May on record is 1977 (officially) at MDW which had a mean of 20.7C, and an average max of 27.3C

[Cambium]

We should start a "Hot weather in May" thread too. Be interesting to see the two.

Something tells me I'll have 9 days here struggling past 50sF° in May this year. Average is 6 for Bridgeport. 2003 had 11.

Oddly enough BDR averages just 1 night in the 30s. That's when you start to see the differences in lows (coast vs just few miles in)

[Ariete]

Originally Posted by Cambium

We should start a "Hot weather in May" thread too. Be interesting to see the two.

The 27.7C (82F) in 2010 is the hottest in the last 15 years in my location, and 30.0C (86F) is the all-time record high. Nationwide it's 31.0C (88F).

Last year we managed 26.9C (81.5F).

As many of us live on the Northern and Western fringes of Europe 80F+ days in May aren't very common.

[tarzan_taborda]

Average high: 15.7ºC
Average low: 7.4ºC

For the 1981-2010 period the all time low for May is -1.8ºC and the lowest Max temperature for a May day is 4.6ºC

We had snow last year in early May, as well as most Castilla y Leon cities (Spain).

On average I would say I get 3/5 days where the max is around or below 10ºC in May, these are usually rainy days.

[The East Frisian]

Coldest start in May here was in 1979, when the first five days had a high between 6 and 9°C
Meteociel - Climatologie mensuelle de Bremerhaven ( Germany )

I've read that some snow fell on the 5th here- don't have to be genuine snow but at least sleet could be possible.
850 hpa Temps were about -6°C around noon that day.
Meteociel - Archives des analyses NCEP de 1871 aujourd'hui

1 3.9 °c 6 °c 3 °c 992.9 hPa --- 10.9 mm
2 4.6 °c 7 °c 3 °c 1005.1 hPa --- 5.1 mm
3 5.3 °c 9 °c 3 °c 1013.7 hPa --- 3 mm
4 5.6 °c 8 °c 3 °c 1020.6 hPa --- 0 mm
5 3.7 °c 6 °c 2 °c 1021.8 hPa --- 10.9 mm


In 1974 it remained even colder one day with a high of only 4.8°C on the 6th (Meteociel only shows whole degrees before 1982), but in contrast to 1979 this was only a short lived period of just three days with highs below 10°C.
Meteociel - Climatologie mensuelle de Bremerhaven ( Germany )

5 5.9 °c 7 °c 4 °c 1010.8 hPa --- 0 mm
6 3.9 °c 5 °c 3 °c 1017.4 hPa --- 2 mm
7 6.6 °c 9 °c 3 °c 1020.3 hPa --- 3 mm

A freeze in May on our official weather station is extraordinary rare and happened only once since records began in 1949 with -1.1°C/ 30°F on 8th May 1957.
Unfortunality i can only access the lowest maximum on record for that month and according to my source it was 7.7°C / 45.8°F.

As for the coldest May as a whole month that would be May 1955 with an monthly mean of 9.65°C, closely followed by 1987 and 1991 with 9.74°C and 9.79°C.
And also very recently 2010 was a very cold May with a monthly mean of only 9.9°C.
For comparison our longterm average in May is 12.3°C, so the largest departures are only about 3°C/ 6°F.



Our warmest May so far was in 2000 with a mean of 15.2°C, so only a few tenth degrees colder than an average June.

Hottest Day ever in May was in 2005 when 30.3°C (86.5°F) were recorded officially (and the station is basically on the sea shore), so further inland it was even hotter with highs in the 90s ( i had a simple thermometer back then and lived in another part of town and recorded 33°C/ 92°F on the afternoon of May 28th).
http://www.meteociel.fr/climatologie...s=5&annee=2005

Highs in the 80s in May: Seem to be more common now than before the 1990s and do happen about every 3-4 years on our official weather station and almost
every year here further inland.

[irlinit]

I believe our record max for May was 32.8C in 1949.

80f happens occasionally, but 30c is harder to achieve in May. I think it last happened in 2008, although a few recent years have hit 28/29c

[wawa1992]

The day I got my current car was May 4, 2013, and had a high of 50 F and low of 44 F (10 C / 7 C). I think that's a record low for a high. 44 F / 7 C is pretty low for a low, but we have had lows in the 30s F. May 5, 2011 was 68 F / 38 F (20 C / 4 C). I was riding in an Audi A8 that evening and had to use the heated seat. LOL.