May certainly was a fickle month here in central Virginia. What started out as a cool and wet month, ended as a hot and dry one. Here are some of the numbers for the month, courtesy of McCormick Observatory at the University of Virginia.

The average high temperature for the month will go down in the books as 1º below the average, despite the string of hot weather toward the end. This is because we had many afternoon where the highs were only in the 60s - mainly kept down because of cloud cover. For the overnight lows, the clouds actually kept us warmer. This gave us a nightly low average that was 3º above the average!

The rainfall numbers were even more impressive. May was a very soggy month, especially for the first 20 days. The entire month saw a whopping 6.15" of rain, when we typically average 4.86" in a normal May. This wet month continued the trend of what was a very wet meteorological spring (March, April, May). For those three months combined, we picked up 17.20" of precipitation - when a normal spring would only give us around 12.25". After SUCH a dry start to the year (only about 2.50" of precipitation for January and February combined), this may help us out tremendously for the upcoming summer season.

If you're wondering where we stand in terms of rainfall for the year, we are actually doing quite well. Through May 31, we have received 19.68" of precipitation in Charlottesville, which gives us a slight surplus for the year. Here's hoping the wet weather continues into summer. Only time will tell...On that note, do you think we will have another scorcher of a summer, or will Mother Nature cut us a break this year? Chime in with your comments at the bottom of this blog.

Until next time,

Brantley