May 2025

[Brian5671]

Overcast here-looks like the band of rain is finally shifting NE

[bluewave]

Ensembles continuing with the slow moving cutoff theme for the extended Friday to Monday Memorial Day weekend. 
 

 

[SACRUS]

 

59 / 57 cloudy and light rain.  0.75 in the bucket (so far).  Clouds remain and rain should go more scattered today and being the coolest day of the period stuck in the low 60s.  Warmer tomorrow with maybe some breaks of sun once the fog burns off and isolated showers and rain.  SImilar and yet warmer on Friday with mainly cloudy skies and some scattered showers.  Saturday not a wash out and the chance to the warmest day of the next 10 with enough sun could push low - mid 80s in the warm spots ahead of the storms coming with the cold front.  Reprieve between the unesettled weather with a sunny dry Sunday - Wednesday - near normal.

Next trough begins its cut off and memorial day misery Wed - Sun with more clouds, cool and rain. May be a top 5 ugly weekend.  Trough clings to the east and any clinging to heat before June is all but evaporated -

no fear for the fans of summer help could be on the way by the first week of next month with the building heat in the west ejecting east in the long range.

 

[SnoSki14]

What's crazy is we're still averaging well above normal months (March-May) but the warmth has been so extreme further west that our weather seems cool by comparison. 

[SACRUS]

 

Records:

Highs:   -- Coolest record highs of the month - 5/14 just isnt hot in recorded history

EWR: 86 (1991) 
NYC: 88 (1900)
LGA: 84 (1991)
JFK: 87 (1991)


Lows:

EWR: 36 (1939)
NYC: 40 (1878)
LGA: 44 (2019)
JFK: 39 (1987)


Historical:

1686: The inventor of the thermometer Gabriel Fahrenheit was born.

 

1834: The greatest May snowstorm on record for New England occurred. The hills around Newbury, VT were covered with up to 24 inches of snow and the higher elevations around Haverhill, NH received up to three feet of snow.

1896 - The mercury plunged to 10 degrees below zero at Climax, CO. It was the lowest reading of record for the U.S. during the month of May. (David Ludlum)

1898 - A severe thunderstorm, with some hailstones up to 9.5 inches in circumference, pounded a four mile wide path across Kansas City MO. South-facing windows were broken in nearly every house in central and eastern parts of the city, and several persons were injured. An even larger hailstone was thought to have been found, but it turned out to be a chunk of ice tossed out the window of a building by a prankster. (The Kansas City Weather Almanac) (The Weather Channel)

 

1985: Severe thunderstorms developed in DeWitt County, located between Bloomington and Decatur, and moved northward. The storms produced a wind gust of 73 mph at the Bloomington airport. In the Marshall County town of Wenona, winds up to 100 mph destroyed several barns and farm buildings. LaSalle County had 2 inch diameter hail and 60 mph winds; in Mendota, nearly every building in town sustained some damage.

 

1987 - Seven cities across the western U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date as unseasonably hot weather made a comeback. The record high of 103 degrees at Sacramento CA was their ninth in eleven days, and also marked a record seven days of 100 degree heat for the month. Their previous record was two days of 100 degree heat in May. (The National Weather Summary)

1988 - Sunny and dry weather prevailed across the nation. Temperatures warmed into the 80s and lower 90s in the Great Plains Region and the Mississippi Valley. (The National Weather Summary)

1989 - Thunderstorms developing along a stationary front produced severe weather in south central Texas and the Southern High Plains Region during the afternoon and evening hours. Thunderstorms produced softball size hail at Spearman and Hitchcock, TX. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

1990 - Thunderstorms developing ahead of a cold front produced severe weather from northwest Texas to western Missouri. Severe thunderstorms spawned seventeen tornadoes, including nine in Texas. Four tornadoes in Texas injured a total of nine persons. Thunderstorms in Texas also produced hail four inches in diameter at Shamrock, and hail four and a half inches in diameter near Guthrie. Thunderstorms over northeastern Kansas produced more than seven inches of rain in Chautauqua County between 9 PM and midnight. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)

[SACRUS]

 

Euro still not updating in the PSU Ewall site 

 

It is more similar to the Canadian in the Day 7-10  (May 21 - May 24)

 

[Sundog]

14 minutes ago, SnoSki14 said:

What's crazy is we're still averaging well above normal months (March-May) but the warmth has been so extreme further west that our weather seems cool by comparison. 

+1 to +3 over the warmest period on record (1991-2020) is the new normal. The next 30 year climate period coming out in 2031 is going to be an inferno. 

[SACRUS]

The period May 23 - 28 should shave those positive departures a bit.  

[SACRUS]

more scattered rain towards early afternoon

[Sundog]

Nice batch moving through NYC right now. Drops are fat. 

[LibertyBell]

2 hours ago, Sundog said:

I remember that because of a NE wind on the North Shore farther west on the island, we had a shallow inverted layer that kept our winds in check. I think LGA recorded the lowest gusts out of all the stations. 

^Yes, meanwhile Kennedy and Long Beach were up around 80 mph.

Higher than December 1992 but not anywhere near the amount of damage because December 1992 lasted for 3-5 days.

They really need to name these long lasting historic noreasters, they cause more damage here than hurricanes do.

 

[LibertyBell]

47 minutes ago, Sundog said:

+1 to +3 over the warmest period on record (1991-2020) is the new normal. The next 30 year climate period coming out in 2031 is going to be an inferno. 

but it's leaning on higher mins, so not really an inferno, more like a slow bake oven.

[LibertyBell]

53 minutes ago, SACRUS said:

 

Records:

Highs:   -- Coolest record highs of the month - 5/14 just isnt hot in recorded history

EWR: 86 (1991) 
NYC: 88 (1900)
LGA: 84 (1991)
JFK: 87 (1991)


Lows:

EWR: 36 (1939)
NYC: 40 (1878)
LGA: 44 (2019)
JFK: 39 (1987)


Historical:

1686: The inventor of the thermometer Gabriel Fahrenheit was born.

 

1834: The greatest May snowstorm on record for New England occurred. The hills around Newbury, VT were covered with up to 24 inches of snow and the higher elevations around Haverhill, NH received up to three feet of snow.

1896 - The mercury plunged to 10 degrees below zero at Climax, CO. It was the lowest reading of record for the U.S. during the month of May. (David Ludlum)

1898 - A severe thunderstorm, with some hailstones up to 9.5 inches in circumference, pounded a four mile wide path across Kansas City MO. South-facing windows were broken in nearly every house in central and eastern parts of the city, and several persons were injured. An even larger hailstone was thought to have been found, but it turned out to be a chunk of ice tossed out the window of a building by a prankster. (The Kansas City Weather Almanac) (The Weather Channel)

 

1985: Severe thunderstorms developed in DeWitt County, located between Bloomington and Decatur, and moved northward. The storms produced a wind gust of 73 mph at the Bloomington airport. In the Marshall County town of Wenona, winds up to 100 mph destroyed several barns and farm buildings. LaSalle County had 2 inch diameter hail and 60 mph winds; in Mendota, nearly every building in town sustained some damage.

 

1987 - Seven cities across the western U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date as unseasonably hot weather made a comeback. The record high of 103 degrees at Sacramento CA was their ninth in eleven days, and also marked a record seven days of 100 degree heat for the month. Their previous record was two days of 100 degree heat in May. (The National Weather Summary)

1988 - Sunny and dry weather prevailed across the nation. Temperatures warmed into the 80s and lower 90s in the Great Plains Region and the Mississippi Valley. (The National Weather Summary)

1989 - Thunderstorms developing along a stationary front produced severe weather in south central Texas and the Southern High Plains Region during the afternoon and evening hours. Thunderstorms produced softball size hail at Spearman and Hitchcock, TX. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

1990 - Thunderstorms developing ahead of a cold front produced severe weather from northwest Texas to western Missouri. Severe thunderstorms spawned seventeen tornadoes, including nine in Texas. Four tornadoes in Texas injured a total of nine persons. Thunderstorms in Texas also produced hail four inches in diameter at Shamrock, and hail four and a half inches in diameter near Guthrie. Thunderstorms over northeastern Kansas produced more than seven inches of rain in Chautauqua County between 9 PM and midnight. (Storm Data) (The National Weather Summary)

is this also the day of the month that has gotten the most rain?

My dear Dad passed away on 5/14/2014 and I always remember it as the rainiest day and that entire spring/summer was extremely rainy.

[LibertyBell]

1 hour ago, SACRUS said:

 

59 / 57 cloudy and light rain.  0.75 in the bucket (so far).  Clouds remain and rain should go more scattered today and being the coolest day of the period stuck in the low 60s.  Warmer tomorrow with maybe some breaks of sun once the fog burns off and isolated showers and rain.  SImilar and yet warmer on Friday with mainly cloudy skies and some scattered showers.  Saturday not a wash out and the chance to the warmest day of the next 10 with enough sun could push low - mid 80s in the warm spots ahead of the storms coming with the cold front.  Reprieve between the unesettled weather with a sunny dry Sunday - Wednesday - near normal.

Next trough begins its cut off and memorial day misery Wed - Sun with more clouds, cool and rain. May be a top 5 ugly weekend.  Trough clings to the east and any clinging to heat before June is all but evaporated -

no fear for the fans of summer help could be on the way by the first week of next month with the building heat in the west ejecting east in the long range.

 

so all this cut off crap is caused by the big ridge in the west?

why don't we get this in the winter anymore-- ridge in the west trough in the east?

I can easily forecast a mild snowless winter, because that's when we'll get the ridge in the east lol.  Whatever the summer is, the winter tends to be opposite.

 

[LibertyBell]

1 hour ago, MJO812 said:

Raining here

Love it

enjoy your mild snowless winter, because thats what we will get with a rainy cool summer.

 

[LibertyBell]

2 hours ago, LongBeachSurfFreak said:

The Wantagh meso 107 is a extreme example of what a dry west wind can do on the south shore. That station is less then a mile from the bay. I think allot of it has to due with air exiting the urban heat island of the city and continuing through the most developed part of the island. I was life guarding at jones beach that day and we had several heat exhaustion incidents. On the sand it can be even hotter. 

I thought it was the downsloping effect from the huge skyscrapers... dry hot west winds in the spring summer and fall are my absolute favorite!! We get really blue skies with them too!!

 

 

[LibertyBell]

2 hours ago, bluewave said:

Yeah, there was a small cooling influence from the nearby trees back in 1966 in Central Park compared to the other areas. But nothing as big as we would see today under the canopy that has grown over the ASOS.

That was a 250 to 500 year drought around our area. But instead we have seen multiple 500 year to 1000 year floods here. So if that was ever repeated in this much warmer climate, then most of the area would be in the 110° to 115° range with westerly flow. So we have been fortunate that this warmer climate has come with more onshore flow. 

The drought was very modest in 2010 to 2011 compared to those days. So I would add 5-7 degrees to the 2010-2011 highs if we got as dry as the 1960s. This is similar to what happened in the Pacific NW back in 2021 with the record drought and all-time high jumps around 6° higher than previous records. Remember, we had two baseline jumps in global temperatures since 2010-2011. 

 

Data for January 1, 1966 through December 31, 1966
Click column heading to sort ascending, click again to sort descending.

NY	LAGUARDIA AIRPORT	WBAN	107
NJ	NEWARK LIBERTY INTL AP	WBAN	105
NY	NEW YORK AVE V BROOKLYN	COOP	105
NY	PORT JERVIS	COOP	104
NY	NEW YORK LAUREL HILL	COOP	104
NJ	LITTLE FALLS	COOP	104
NY	JFK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT	WBAN	104
NY	ISLIP-LI MACARTHUR AP	WBAN	104
NJ	ELIZABETH	COOP	103
NJ	CANOE BROOK	COOP	103
NY	NY CITY CENTRAL PARK	WBAN	103
NJ	ESSEX FELLS SERVICE BLDG	COOP	103
NJ	PATERSON	COOP	103
NY	MINEOLA	COOP	103
NY	WEST POINT	COOP	103
CT	NORWALK GAS PLANT	COOP	103

 

Data for January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2011
Click column heading to sort ascending, click again to sort descending.

NY	MINEOLA	COOP	108
NJ	NEWARK LIBERTY INTL AP	WBAN	108
NY	WANTAGH CEDAR CREEK	COOP	107
NJ	CANOE BROOK	COOP	107
NJ	HARRISON	COOP	107
NJ	RINGWOOD	COOP	106
NY	MOLLOY CERCOM	COOP	105
NJ	TETERBORO AIRPORT	COOP	104
NJ	PLAINFIELD	COOP	104
NJ	CRANFORD	COOP	104
NY	LAGUARDIA AIRPORT	WBAN	104
NY	NY CITY CENTRAL PARK	WBAN	104
NJ	TETERBORO AIRPORT	WBAN	104
CT	DANBURY	COOP	104
NY	JFK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT	WBAN	103
NY	WEST POINT	COOP	103

 

Time Series Summary for Olympia Area, WA (ThreadEx) - Jan through Dec
Click column heading to sort ascending, click again to sort descending.

1	2021	110	0
2	2009	104	0
-	1981	104	0
3	1994	102	0
4	2006	101	0
5	2024	100	0
-	2023	100	2
-	1998	100	0
-	1978	100	0
-	1961	100	0
-	1960	100	0
-	1956	100	0

Summer 1966 was also followed by one of our best winters, 1966-67.  It furthers my argument that our hottest/driest summers lead to our best winters.  It was repeated again with 1977-78, 1993-94, 1995-96, 2002-03 and 2010-11.  1955-56 also followed in the same style.

 

I definitely would not mind a lower humidity summer with high temperatures above 100, it's quite therapeutic and keeps the bugs away.

 

[LibertyBell]

11 hours ago, coastalplainsnowman said:

2010 - 2012 were some wild times around here.  There was that ridiculously wet mid-March 2010 where LI lost as many trees as in a hurricane due to the ground being so saturated, then Irene, then Sandy.  All interspersed with crazy snowstorms and then 100 degree heat, including I think a 106 in Newark.  Oh yeah, a decent earthquake too.  Am I missing anything?  Fun times if you like this sort of thing, not sure if it applies to anyone here lol.

108 at Newark, 104 at NYC and 103 at JFK.

As Chris mentioned Mineola on Long Island hit 108 and matched Newark!

[Brian5671]

8 minutes ago, LibertyBell said:

enjoy your mild snowless winter, because thats what we will get with a rainy cool summer.

 

Summer of '09 was rainy/cool and it led to one of the most epic winters of all time NYC south....

[Sundog]

16 minutes ago, LibertyBell said:

but it's leaning on higher mins, so not really an inferno, more like a slow bake oven.

I don't know if that's 100% true, we may not have gotten huge heatwaves in summer in the last few years but the rest of the year we have highs that are well above average all the time. 

[LongBeachSurfFreak]

19 minutes ago, Sundog said:

Nice batch moving through NYC right now. Drops are fat. 

Yeah I just got soaked picking plants for a landscape project. My client insisted on doing it today. 
Based on radar we should approach an inch through out most of the metro 

[LibertyBell]

2 hours ago, bluewave said:

Yeah, there was a small cooling influence from the nearby trees back in 1966 in Central Park compared to the other areas. But nothing as big as we would see today under the canopy that has grown over the ASOS.

That was a 250 to 500 year drought around our area. But instead we have seen multiple 500 year to 1000 year floods here. So if that was ever repeated in this much warmer climate, then most of the area would be in the 110° to 115° range with westerly flow. So we have been fortunate that this warmer climate has come with more onshore flow. 

The drought was very modest in 2010 to 2011 compared to those days. So I would add 5-7 degrees to the 2010-2011 highs if we got as dry as the 1960s. This is similar to what happened in the Pacific NW back in 2021 with the record drought and all-time high jumps around 6° higher than previous records. Remember, we had two baseline jumps in global temperatures since 2010-2011. 

 

Data for January 1, 1966 through December 31, 1966
Click column heading to sort ascending, click again to sort descending.

NY	LAGUARDIA AIRPORT	WBAN	107
NJ	NEWARK LIBERTY INTL AP	WBAN	105
NY	NEW YORK AVE V BROOKLYN	COOP	105
NY	PORT JERVIS	COOP	104
NY	NEW YORK LAUREL HILL	COOP	104
NJ	LITTLE FALLS	COOP	104
NY	JFK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT	WBAN	104
NY	ISLIP-LI MACARTHUR AP	WBAN	104
NJ	ELIZABETH	COOP	103
NJ	CANOE BROOK	COOP	103
NY	NY CITY CENTRAL PARK	WBAN	103
NJ	ESSEX FELLS SERVICE BLDG	COOP	103
NJ	PATERSON	COOP	103
NY	MINEOLA	COOP	103
NY	WEST POINT	COOP	103
CT	NORWALK GAS PLANT	COOP	103

 

Data for January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2011
Click column heading to sort ascending, click again to sort descending.

NY	MINEOLA	COOP	108
NJ	NEWARK LIBERTY INTL AP	WBAN	108
NY	WANTAGH CEDAR CREEK	COOP	107
NJ	CANOE BROOK	COOP	107
NJ	HARRISON	COOP	107
NJ	RINGWOOD	COOP	106
NY	MOLLOY CERCOM	COOP	105
NJ	TETERBORO AIRPORT	COOP	104
NJ	PLAINFIELD	COOP	104
NJ	CRANFORD	COOP	104
NY	LAGUARDIA AIRPORT	WBAN	104
NY	NY CITY CENTRAL PARK	WBAN	104
NJ	TETERBORO AIRPORT	WBAN	104
CT	DANBURY	COOP	104
NY	JFK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT	WBAN	103
NY	WEST POINT	COOP	103

 

Time Series Summary for Olympia Area, WA (ThreadEx) - Jan through Dec
Click column heading to sort ascending, click again to sort descending.

1	2021	110	0
2	2009	104	0
-	1981	104	0
3	1994	102	0
4	2006	101	0
5	2024	100	0
-	2023	100	2
-	1998	100	0
-	1978	100	0
-	1961	100	0
-	1960	100	0
-	1956	100	0

Thanks for the comparison Chris.... it's wild how everyone says that LGA is overly hot, and yet the high in Summer 1966 was 107 while it was 3 degrees lower in Summer 2011 at 103.

 

I love the Mineola comparison between the two summers, they went up from 103 in 1966 to 108 in 2011 to match Newark!

Newark went up three degrees from 105 to 108 and NYC and JFK basically stayed the same (103-104).  This is a great reference point to compare the climate between the 1960s and the 2010s!!

 

Didn't 1966 have a second 100 degree heat streak, back in June?  I think JFK topped 100 in that one too!  We don't see 100 degree heat in June anymore, but we did in the 1950s (1953) and 1960s (1966).

 

[bluewave]

10 minutes ago, LibertyBell said:

Summer 1966 was also followed by one of our best winters, 1966-67.  It furthers my argument that our hottest/driest summers lead to our best winters.  It was repeated again with 1977-78, 1993-94, 1995-96, 2002-03 and 2010-11.  1955-56 also followed in the same style.

 

I definitely would not mind a lower humidity summer with high temperatures above 100, it's quite therapeutic and keeps the bugs away.

 

It’s going to be a challenge getting anything resembling dry summer heat here with so much summer onshore flow and high dewpoints. Seems like you could really enjoy a Las Vegas or Phoenix summer pattern. It’s a really beautiful part of the country if you can tolerate that kind of heat. 

[Brian5671]

21 minutes ago, Sundog said:

Nice batch moving through NYC right now. Drops are fat. 

Very little here as it's having a hard time moving in here-had a shower overnight-about .10 for the event.   Dry currently and 61 degrees

[LibertyBell]

2 hours ago, LongBeachSurfFreak said:

The Wantagh meso 107 is a extreme example of what a dry west wind can do on the south shore. That station is less then a mile from the bay. I think allot of it has to due with air exiting the urban heat island of the city and continuing through the most developed part of the island. I was life guarding at jones beach that day and we had several heat exhaustion incidents. On the sand it can be even hotter. 

People suffered second degree feet burns during the 1993 Summer when they went to the beach and I remember people were frying eggs on the sidewalk lol.

 

[LibertyBell]

2 hours ago, WestBabylonWeather said:

I remember we got hail on New Year’s Eve 

That was one of the highlights of that winter lol.

Nature celebrating the new year with a bang.

[LibertyBell]

2 minutes ago, bluewave said:

It’s going to be a challenge getting anything resembling dry summer heat here with so much summer onshore flow and high dewpoints. Seems like you could really enjoy a Las Vegas or Phoenix summer pattern. It’s a really beautiful part of the country if you can tolerate that kind of heat. 

It gets boring if it lasts too long lol.  I just want like a 3-4 day stretch like that every summer.

[LibertyBell]

9 minutes ago, Brian5671 said:

Summer of '09 was rainy/cool and it led to one of the most epic winters of all time NYC south....

There's always an exception here and there, but the rule is a good one that seems to work out more times than not.

I'd argue that 2010-2011 was a much better winter and was more in line with the great winters in my analysis, in 2009-2010 the biggest snowstorm missed to our south, that one still angers me lol.

Snowicane at the end of February was a great storm, but was half rain for the eastern half of the subforum.

[LibertyBell]

14 minutes ago, Sundog said:

I don't know if that's 100% true, we may not have gotten huge heatwaves in summer in the last few years but the rest of the year we have highs that are well above average all the time. 

Yes, this is what indicates to me that the boundaries between the seasons are becoming blurred. Maybe it's more accurate to say that for Spring and Summer it's more like a slow bake oven.

It's what we see in the tropics all the time, but down there it's natural and a result of being closer to the Equator and not seeing the extreme differences in sunlight that we get from winter to summer.

[Stormlover74]

Seems like south jersey is getting the heaviest this morning. Which is fine since they need it but modeling was further north