The UK in May
Mike Hulme on last month’s weather
DAYTIME TEMPERATURES
Temperatures in May were
well above the average for the time of year, most notably over the last 10 days
of the month. After a cool first week,
the 12th May saw the warmest day of the year so far with an average
nationwide daytime temperature above 20C.
The May warmth was quite uniform across the country, with a few
locations – Bournemouth, Eskdalemuir, Aberdeen, for example – recording temperatures
more than 2C above usual. Aberdeen
ended up as warm as Lowestoft, although normally in May the latter is nearly 2C
warmer than Aberdeen. The rather warm
May means that UK temperature now during 2001 is slightly above the long-term
average.
RAINFALL
May was the first dry month
in the UK since the end of last summer.
Nationwide, rainfall totals were 38% below average and parts of the
south coast and the western isles recorded less than 50% of average
rainfall. There was only one really wet
spell in the month – 15-17th May, during which about half the
monthly rainfall occurred. The rest of
the month was predominantly dry. Only
two locations – Lowestoft and Belfast - of the 20 monitored here ended up
wetter than usual, and in each case only by a few mms. The early May Bank Holiday was dry
everywhere, very sunny, although rather cool.
SUNSHINE
With warm temperatures and a
dry month, it was no surprise that sunshine totals during May were well above
average - about 19% nationwide. In
relative terms, parts of Scotland benefited most and Aberdeen, Eskdalemuir and
Kinloss each recorded more than 40% more sunshine that would be usual in
May. At the other extreme, Skegness
disappointed in that totals were about 15% below normal. The sunniest sequence of days was the 22-24th
May, when each day recorded as a nationwide average over 12 hours
sunshine. The dullest day of the month
was the 16th with only 1.8 hours of sunshine – it was also the
wettest day. The late May Bank Holiday
was warm, although rather cloudy with a little rain in the north and west.
Dr Mike Hulme is a Director
of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, at UEA
(more details at website at
www.tyndall.ac.uk)
May 2001: Rather warm, sunny and dry
Daytime Temperature: 1.5C above average; Rainfall: 38% below average; Sunshine: 19% above average.
[all average figures are
based on the 1951-80 average]
Mean monthly extremes:
Warmest Ross-on-Wye 18.1C
Sunniest Folkestone 268 hours
sun
Wettest Belfast 64mm
Coldest Lerwick 11.0C
Cloudiest Skegness 155 hours
sun
Driest Leuchars 17mm