May 2019 Observations and Discussion

[Tom]

It's nice to see the mid-month drier period showing up all across the ag belt regions for our farmers.  I'm sure many of you will enjoy the relaxation period.  

 

 

 

 

The wetter pattern ignites up again during the 3rd week of May right before the Memorial Day holiday period.  00z GEFS seeing it...I'm not to enthusiastic right now at seeing a great wx pattern for the GL's region for the official weekend that kicks off summer.

 

 

[Tom]

JMA Weeklies showing no real warm signal and overall cooler than normal to normal across the board for the remainder of the month.

 

Week 2...

 

http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/model/map/1mE/map1/img/R07_2/Y201905.D0812_gl2.png

 

 

http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/model/map/1mE/map1/img/R07_2/Y201905.D0812_gl0.png

 

 

 

Weeks 3-4...

 

 

http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/model/map/1mE/map1/img/R14_3/Y201905.D0812_gl2.png

 

http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/model/map/1mE/map1/img/R14_3/Y201905.D0812_gl0.png

[Tom]

Read this tweet from Judah Cohen...a sign of the times???  #lowsolar  #strat

 

 

 

This is a bit inside meteorology but I can't help myself. This is a ridiculous polar cap geopotential height anomaly plot for winter let alone in May. If we had this in February we would be looking at some really wild winter weather.

[East Dubzz]

What an unpleasant day today. And I have a softball game at 9:30 tonight. That will surely be a fun one.

[Hawkeye]

The temp hasn't risen at all so far today, still sitting at 43º.

 

The next couple weeks certainly don't look exciting, but at least dry weather will allow me to get my garden planted.

[jaster220]

34F and heavy snow in Duluth. 6-10" in WI near Superior. What month is this again? There's been worse ofc, but we really need to break this pattern down. Did my 2nd mow of the week here - tis the season. At least everything here is VERY green right now and the 2nd half flowering trees are really starting to bloom. Should be a fantastic next 7-10 days in Marshall. 

 

I was trying to put a silver lining on this for those to my NW. So much for that! 

 

I wouldn't know what to do if I were in your shoes bud.  Jump on a flight here to AZ and come join me at the pool!  In all seriousness though, this pattern is a bit ridiculous for you guys.  If you haven't heard already, Duluth just smashed a 117 year old daily May snowfall record: https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2019/05/09/duluth-breaks-100-year-record-with-may-8-snowfall/

 

Not only that, but there was thundersnow being seen on radar.

 

 

[jaster220]

Guess I was remembering this from Yooper-land. From an article about Marquette. I was there in early July of '90 on vacation and peeps were still speaking of it..

 

He recalled a snowstorm, May 9-10, 1990, which accumulated about 22.4 inches of ...

[East Dubzz]

Original high for today was forecasted at 50*, but it's still only at 44, and they lowered the forecast to 47 now. What terrible weather for the beginning of May. 

[jaster220]

Found this from Milwaukee as well. Wx history is often more fun than the actual wx

 

What about early autumn snow? This gets a bit interesting. On the night of October 19, 1989 a cool rain changed to snow and continued into the morning of the 20th. The snow storm dropped 6.3” of sticky snow as temps hovered just above the freezing mark. Now this time many leaves have already fallen or were ready to come down. Still, breaking branches from trees that couldn’t hold the snow cause power outages for 8,000. So the “winter” of 1989-1990 started before all the leaves fell and continued until after new leaves formed.  These two events are the calendar’s earliest and latest snowfalls of +3” (with some areas getting +6”) on record for Milwaukee.

[OKwx2k4]

Running my furnace this evening. Wow. It's cold outside.

[Madtown]

spread 9 yards of mulch today...was supposed to be 53 and sunny....45 and drizzle. While things are greening up we are easily week and a half to 2 weeks behind normal for now.

[CentralNebWeather]

Frost covering everything this morning. I think the official low here will be 30 or 31.

[Hawkeye]

It's already five degrees warmer than yesterday's high.  The sun makes a big difference.

[james1976]

Weekend looks pleasant!

[Niko]

Weekend looks dreary! Especially, Sunday as rain enters the picture.

[Niko]

Currently, cloudy and seasonably mild w temps in the 50s.

[Andie]

57* down here's or a High. Cloudy, breezy.

 

90% chance of rain through tomorrow. High then 68* Low 54*.

 

Our average High is normally 81*. Very odd May Day. Felt more like early April.

[Hawkeye]

Average high temp in Cedar Rapids through the first nine days of May.

 

2018: 80º

2019: 63º

[Stormy]

Average high temp in Cedar Rapids through the first nine days of May.

 

2018: 80º

2019: 63º

Yeah its been crazy so far! It's not good for seed that's been planted.

Yesterday was a beautiful day though. Just a little cool.

[Niko]

My area was in a frost advisory last night and boy o boy, did it get chilly for May standards. Lows dipped down into the lower and middle 30s. Currently, temps have started to rebound w limited sunshine around, as high clouds have began to increase ahead of a LP area that will bring rain tomorrow.

 

Currently at 42F and partly to mostly cloudy skies.

[westMJim]

The overnight low here at my house was 35° (34.5) I do not know if there was any frost. The official low for Grand Rapids was 38° some other official readings were Muskegon 35, Marshal 35, Lansing 36. To the north Cadillac 29 and Gaylord 27. At this time it is cloudy and 53 here at my house.

[OKwx2k4]

This was a pretty cold May morning for sure. Very rare to see an opening 10 days of May like I have experienced this year. More strange weather likely to follow, if short term history (persistence) is an indicator of what is to cone.

[westMJim]

The average H/L is now for Grand Rapids at 68/46 and by the 16^th the average H/L is 70/47. So far this May the average H/L at Grand Rapids has been 61.3/43.1 the average H/L for this deep into May should be 66.3/44.4 The good news is that the overnight lows have been as warm as they have been otherwise, we would be much more below average then we have been so far. At this time the mean for this May is 52.1° that is good for a departure of -3.1°

[Hawkeye]

After one decent day, we have to deal with a crumby weekend.  Thankfully, it looks like 70 several days next week.

[Andie]

Good Grief! We received 2 inches of rain last night.

 

This takes us up to almost 15" this yr. Currently 59*

They says it'll hit 67*. I'm skeptical. But 80* for tomorrow.

 

Geez, is this Solar Minimum in Spring ? Carumba!

At this rate we'll exceed our norm with ease this year.

[BMT]

Wasn’t today supposed to be 60 and sunny two days ago? Instead it’s been raining all day

[Hawkeye]

This morning's euro is the warmest of the year so far..... 2-4-day stretch of 80+ across Iowa from Thursday into the weekend.  Unfortunately, all the thunderstorm action gets pushed up into MN/WI.  The euro also has the dewpoint rising into the mid to upper 60s.

[Andie]

Houston is flooding once again after numerous heavy thunderstorms this week......join the crowd Houston.

The city has been dealing with flooding all year in a historic year of rain.

 

https://www.chron.com/news/article/Genuinely-scary-Torrential-rain-in-Houston-13834973.php

 

Considering I had 62+" last year and am looking to hit another record this year....I feel your pain.

[Tom]

This morning's euro is the warmest of the year so far..... four-day stretch of 80s(even mid to upper 80s) across Iowa from Thursday through the weekend.  Unfortunately, all the thunderstorm action gets pushed up into MN/WI.  The euro also has the dewpoint rising into the mid to upper 60s.

It's nice to see nearly all the models showing the warm spell lasting through the weekend instead of coming in during the work week.  Hope it transpires for everyone on here to at least get a nice taste of some...Summer???

[james1976]

Wow I thought it was supposed to be 60s and sunny this weekend. Instead is cloudy with scattered showers and low 50s.

[Andie]

Okay, so it's not my imagination........it's probably a Mini Ice Age. Early days

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/05/08/united-states-is-virtually-drought-free-first-time-decades-while-excessive-rains-are-rampant/?utm_term=.723296049782

 

 

 

 

[jaster220]

Weekend looks dreary! Especially, Sunday as rain enters the picture.

 

Uggh! When you posted this, I was so hoping you were wrong. 43F and rain this evening. Bunch of crud if you ask me..

 

The overnight low here at my house was 35° (34.5) I do not know if there was any frost. The official low for Grand Rapids was 38° some other official readings were Muskegon 35, Marshall 35, Lansing 36. To the north Cadillac 29 and Gaylord 27. At this time it is cloudy and 53 here at my house.

 

Patchy frost was very noticeable as I headed to work this morning around 7. Oddly, more so on the mowed lawns. 

[jaster220]

Houston is flooding once again after numerous heavy thunderstorms this week......join the crowd Houston.

The city has been dealing with flooding all year in a historic year of rain.

 

https://www.chron.com/news/article/Genuinely-scary-Torrential-rain-in-Houston-13834973.php

 

Considering I had 62+" last year and am looking to hit another record this year....I feel your pain.

 

Very notably historic event for Houston! Not a place known for it's hail. Explains why I cannot remember such a report.

 

 

"There were many reports of hail, some up to the size of tennis balls in the Houston metro area. The hail did shatter some windows and likely caused a good bit of damage for some folks," Lanza said in an interview. Some isolated reports of baseball- or even softball-sized hail came in as well.

Big hail is unusual in this region, in part due to its proclivity for tropical rainstorms which tend to have cloud tops closer to the ground (where it's warmer) and warmer air at high altitudes. In terms of historical incidents of large hail right around Houston, there aren't many.

The hail onslaught has limited precedent in records dating to 1850 in Harris County, Lanza noted. "[T]here were at least three reports of hail two inches in diameter or larger," Lanza said. "There have only been 19 reports of hail that large on record in Harris County."

[westMJim]

Happy Mothers Day!!!

It is cloudy and 44° here at my house the low overnight was 42° and here at my house just 0.01" of rain fall yesterday. So far May at Grand Rapids the mean temperature is 51.7° that is a departure of -3.4° so far the average high is 60.7 that is -5.7° below the average that should be be at 66.3° the mean would be much lower if it were not for the average low being 42.6 that is -2.0 below what the average low should of 44.6 be by this date 

[Hawkeye]

Cedar Rapids was one of the last spots to cloud up this morning, so we dropped into the 30s.  One local school, in a low spot on the nw edge of town, dropped to 33º).  This crap needs to go away already.  What a rotten first half of May.

[Minny_Weather]

Yet another below normal day yesterday. Our only above normal day this month has been Cinco de Mayo, with 81/51. Today will likely be our last day in this stretch before our string of 80s this week.

[Andie]

Very notably historic event for Houston! Not a place known for it's hail. Explains why I cannot remember such a report.

The whole hail thing is a freak out. Especially the size of it. That means there's a lot going on in the upper atmosphere that just ain't normal guys!

I'll be very honest here. A lot of Texans are watching the sky more than ever.

Way too much rain here. It's tough on agriculture. I don't know how they got the cotton or maze in this year. The long term is a very real concern down here and if they're right and we're looking at the onset of the mini ice age, well, it's going to get rough on markets and prices.

 

Climate is history.

[Tom]

This coming week will have that "summer" feel to it as DP's are forecast to be well into the upper 60's, even low 70's in a few places by Thursday...

 

[Tom]

@ IllinoisWx, I could already envision what downtown will be like next Saturday if the forecast holds.  Low 80's and sunny!  Man, that's going to feel epic for you, esp on a day like today back home that is pretty miserable.  Hang in there buddy!

 

 

Overcast

45°F

7°C

Humidity 74% Wind Speed NE 14 mph Barometer 29.89 in (1012.5 mb) Dewpoint 37°F (3°C) Visibility 10.00 mi Wind Chill 39°F (4°C) Last update 12 May 8:51 am CDT

[OKwx2k4]

This coming week will have that "summer" feel to it as DP's are forecast to be well into the upper 60's, even low 70's in a few places by Thursday...

 

That's going to feel pretty sticky.