This certainly is going to be a rather lousy day of weather in May.  It won’t be the rain falling as much as those low temperatures which make it feel more like late March and early April.  Back in 1968 the temperature was as low as 35F on this day.   With our afternoon readings only in the lower 50s today, this is no doubt one of the chillier late May days on record.

There won’t be sunshine today, but the end of the day could bring some breaks of sunshine west of the coastline.    Overnight the clearing will spread east and by morning we are looking at the start of a much better day.  When you awake tomorrow some inland areas will see readings in the 30s, with many of us in the lower 40s.

High pressure builds in for Thursday with abundant sunshine.  Inland areas will reach the 60s, with upper 60s to near 70 towards New Hampshire.    This time of year the sun is very strong, as strong as any time of the year, so remember sunscreen if you are going to be outside for an extended period of time.

As we get close to the end of the month I would be curious how you have viewed this May?  Have  you found it wet or cold, warm or dry?  I took at look at the preliminary data through yesterday this morning and was somewhat surprised myself to see we are averaging about 1.3 degrees above the average and have had only slightly  more rain than average.  After last night’s heavy downpours I suspect the rainfall will now be a bit more above normal.

One of the reasons it’s going to end up being a warmer than average May is the three days in the above average range from May 10^th-12^th.   Shower activity has been generally consistent with no day of excessive rainfall.  This has meant no spring flooding and reasonably good growing conditions.

As we move past tomorrow’s beautiful day I see the chance for a few showers late in the day Friday.  I’m not expecting a lot of rain and most of the Friday late day activities should be able to go off without an issue.  I will update the forecast for the rain tomorrow and Friday.

If the weather system that brings the chance of showers Friday keeps moving as expected we will see clearing Saturday and a nice afternoon.  Sunday looks like the best day of the weekend.  Temperatures will moderate from the 60s on Saturday to the 70s by Sunday.  Early next week will continue the trend of milder air with readings well into the 70s and perhaps lower 80s over interior York County by Monday.

Some of you have asked me about the upcoming summer. With June arriving this weekend and schools letting out in the next 3 weeks many of you are certainly wondering about the summer.  Summer patterns are much more difficult to predict than winter, especially since even in the coldest of summers there are still warm days.  However, looking at the forecasts models most of them have the northeast in a slightly warmer than average pattern for June. 

The problem with these averages is it doesn’t mean we don’t see three weeks of chilly air and one week of very warm air.   That doesn’t help you plan for the summer, but it’s the honest truth about summer forecasting.  During the summer I will be updating trends and patterns to give you a better sense of what the upcoming weeks look like so stay tuned.

I’ll be updating the forecast @growingwisdom on Twitter.
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