It's true, other than a couple days it wasn't really that warm last month, yet the data has something else to say. May 2023 set several warm temp records and by several I mean EIGHT, yes eight daily records for my station fell. Bear in mind these are not true 'all time' records as I have operated a weather station at this location for the last 22 years. That however is still a lot of dailies to fall in one month.
It is not unusual for May to bring the seasons first 90º mark and in fact May did just that this year. We cracked that on May 13th and would follow it up with another on May 15th. A total of two days at or above 90º and several other days in the 80s. Nary a freezing temperature all month and that is no surprise as subfreezing weather in May is rare. In fact we failed to drop below 40º on any of May's 31 days. Just nine days had lows below 50º and 3 days managed stay above 60º all night long. The warmest over night low a summer-like 62º on the 15th. Five overnight lows were daily records for warm minimums. Despite several warm afternoons above 85º only two of those were daily records, the third daily record fell on the 20th with a mild 79.6º temp. That remains as one of only two days in May with local records under 80º. The warmest afternoon was a 90.8º mark on May 13th no where near the all time May record of over 95º. With all that warm weather you might think there wasn't a chilly day, but there was. The coolest evening low came on the 9th with a crisp 42.9º and three afternoons failed to reach 60º the chilliest of which was May 4th at 56.7º. Monthly averages were well above my 22 year average with mornings coming in at 52.8º nearly 4º above normal and daily high averaged out to almost 74º a full 6º above normal. Yikes, it really didn't feel that warm.
Rainfall was pitifully low coming in about a third of typical for May. A very July like 1.14 inches in the bucket, but there were thunderstorms around and some local areas got drenched. Even with those isolated downpours it was a dry May. More than half the monthly total came on one day, with 0.61 inch on the 5th. A total of just four days with measurable precipitation all of it in the first half of the month.
June is starting out like May ended with coastal clouds moving in mid morning and burning off around noon. Temps in the comfortable upper 60s and low 70s. That's fine by me, I'll take that all month long :)
Soak it up my friends, soak it up.
