May Weather Report

It’s often the case that the month of May makes up for the
previous two months. This year, the first two Spring months were
exceptional for dryness, and warmth in the case of April. So,

correspondingly, perhaps May appeared unremarkable; we did have double the number of rain days of each of the two previous months, giving a total of 43mm. However, the overall impression was of a dry month.I would guess that the total figure was about 75% of the total we would
normally expect around here. This picture was enhanced by the fact that
two days early in the month, the 1st and 7th, had a total rainfall of
25.4mm – exactly 1 inch, if you prefer. This figure was about double the
entire April total!

The temperature figures were unusual for various reasons.
There was no day which reached a maximum temperature of 20C; there had been 12 such days in April.  The highest temperature in May, 19.5C,
recorded on 6th and 29th, was the same as the highest reading in March.
The overall average maximum temperature was over 1.5 degrees cooler than April, and the average temperature in May was actually lower than
April’s. The range of daily maxima was remarkably narrow; just 4.5C.
This reflected cloudiness and quite breezy conditions. Whilst there were
some occasional chilly nights, a 0.8C minimum on the 26th,  at least,
there were no frosts this year.

I am very grateful to Ann for taking the readings when we
were away giving concerts in Denmark from 18th-29th.

Peter at Pottlelake