End of the month wrap-up — a closer look at May’s weather

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — We made it through May! The first two-three weeks of the month were pretty typical for this time of year, with on-and-off showers and temperatures flip-flopping from hot to cool.

The last 10 days dried out and warmed up, which threw our seasonally normal stretch off track. Salt Lake City only saw rain six out of the 31 days, and over half of our total monthly rain fell on the 18th alone. After that, we saw no measurable moisture in Salt Lake City.

We closed out the month with 1.26 inches of rain, but the average total precipitation is 1.82 inches. While Salt Lake City itself stayed on the dry end, a lot of locations were much closer to average, and southern Utah actually far surpassed their average total rainfall.

Cedar City averages 0.93 inches in May but over doubled that with 1.99 inches. Meanwhile, St. George more than tripled their average of 0.32 inches with 1.15 inches this month! So overall, we didn’t do too bad in the precipitation department. Unfortunately, it still wasn’t enough to break the extreme drought in southwest Utah.

Temperatures were a bit of a roller coaster for the first three weeks. The most significant drop was between the 12th and 13th when Salt Lake City dropped from 89° to the mid 50s. The last week of the month had more consistently toasty temperatures and brought Salt Lake’s first 90 degree day and St. George’s first 100 degree day. Salt Lake hit its first 90 on May 29th, which is 10 days ahead of the typical timeline, and St. George hit 100 the next day, putting it six days ahead of schedule.

Ultimately, Salt Lake City had an average temperature of 63.6° (including overnight lows), which is a little more than three degrees above average. The same is true for high temperatures — we averaged a high of 75° while the 30-year-average is 72°.

We’ll see what June has to offer!