If you feel as if it's been a cool start to the month of May, you'd be right!
And with Memorial Day around the corner, folks are firing up the grills, and the beach gear is coming out of storage. However, we haven't been able to shake off those jackets, even during the afternoon.
An area of high pressure aloft in the atmosphere out towards the Northwest Pacific has allowed for the jet stream to help usher in cooler air toward our neck of the woods. There have been days where daytime highs were in the 40s, two to be exact. And yes, flakes did fly this past Sunday all across the area.
However, if you think we've had it bad, you could have been shoveling 8" of snow.
That's what fell out at the airport back in 1989 on May 7th. Daytime highs that day were a chilly 41F. If you want to feel the cold, travel back in time to the 4th in 1926, where the thermometer read a frigid 36F for a high. The low that day was 25F, making it the coldest temperature recorded in the month of May. We currently average one 40F day a year in the month of May. We've had two this year.
Since 1980, we typically see around five 70F and above days within the first 15 days. It hit 70F only three times this May. For the entire month, we're averaging a total of 13 since 1980.
There were a total of two 70F days in May back in 1997, making that the least 70F and above days since 1980 in the month of May. If you want to feel warm, 3/4 of May in 1991 had temperatures 70F and above.
You'll have to wait until Friday for the next 70F day.
And as of now, it looks as if those flakes and chilly temperatures are in the rear-view mirror, as highs next week will be in the 70s.
