State of The Climate - May and Spring 2013

It's that time again, the monthly State of The Climate by the National Climatic Data Center!

As you may remember from the April data, we were well below normal for temperatures and, at least for Georgia, that holds true with May also.

Here are a few highlights:

• The southeastern U.S. was cooler than average, while the rest of the nation had near and above-average May temperatures. Florida had its 11th coolest May, and Georgia had its 12th coolest, with monthly temperatures 1.5°F and 2.6°F below average, respectively.

• The average US temperature in May was 61.0 degrees, or 0.9 degree above the long term average. The average spring temperature was 50.5 or 0.5 degrees below average making it the 38th coolest spring on record and the coolest spring since 1996. Fourteen states, from North Dakota to Georgia, had spring temperatures that ranked among the ten coldest.

• Georgia had it's 12th coolest May ever, with temperatures 2.6 degrees below normal.

• May precipitation, averaged across the contiguous U.S., was 3.34 inches, 0.47 inches above average, and the 17th wettest May on record. It was also the wettest May since 1995.

• Several rounds of unseasonably cool weather affected the Southeast in May, resulting in nearly 300 daily minimum temperature records and over 250 daily low maximum temperature records tied or broken across the region.

• May marked the end of an exceptionally cold meteorological spring (March-May) at several locations across the Southeast, including Jacksonville, FL (2nd coldest), Augusta, GA (3rd coldest), Gainesville, FL (4th coldest), and Mobile, AL (tied for 5th coldest).