Eighteen days in May the temperature reached 80 degrees, making the month one of the warmest in 20 years.
The average high temperature for the month was 80.3 degrees, more than six degrees above the normal average of 74. The average low temperature of 57.1 degrees was also six degrees warmer.
"Twenty-one years ago was the last time we even averaged 80 for May," said Marietta weather watcher Charlie Worsham.
Article Photos
Paul Miller and his brother Gideon make their way down the steps of the Washington County Courthouse in Marietta Friday afternoon. The month of May had more than six inches of rain, well above normal.
KEVIN PIERSON The
Marietta Times
This year was the first time since 1991 average temperatures for the month exceeded 80 degrees.
It is also just the fourth time in 30 years the average high reached 80, Worsham said.
There were four days at the end of the month when the temperature exceeded 90 degrees, and just twice did the thermometer drop below 70 for the average high.
Fact Box
Statistics for May
Ave. high temperature: 80.3 degrees.
Normal high temperature: 74 degrees.
Ave. low temperature: 57.1 degrees.
Normal low temperature: 51 degrees.
Total rainfall: 6.06 inches.
Normal rainfall: 4.38 inches.
Days over 80 degrees: 18.
Source: Marietta weather watcher Charlie Worsham.
The coolest day of the month was the 13th, with a high of 60 degrees. The 14th of the month had a high of 67.
"That's usually not the exception. In the last 30 years we've had more 60s than 80s in May," Worsham said.
Five times in the month the temperature swung 10 degrees warmer or cooler between days.
Warm temperatures in May followed record setting temperatures in March and a substantially cooler April. Still, the warm weather was welcome to many area residents.
"As soon as it starts cooling down they complain because it's cold, but then it starts warming up and it's too hot," said Jack Wolfe, 66, of Waterford.
Wolfe said he particularly enjoyed the month, despite the heat.
"I thought it was great, pretty decent weather," Wolfe said.
Along with the warm temperatures, May was also exceptionally wet as there were 6.06 inches of rainfall.
Normal rainfall for the month is 4.38 inches.
Entering May, the Mid-Ohio Valley was 1.2 inches below normal rainfall for the year. After it rained on 11 days in the month, the area is now half an inch above normal for the year, Worsham said.
This year was the fourth time since 2001 that the area has had more than six inches of rain in the month of May.
"May is usually a pretty rainy month," Worsham said.
Included in the 6.06 inches of rain was a record 2.47 inches that fell on May 8. That total broke the previous record for the date, which was 0.75 inches in 1918.
The first day of the month saw 0.94 inches of rain fall, and four times there was more than half an inch, which was needed for plant growth, Wolfe said.
"Some parts of the county have been getting awful dry. They needed rain," Wolfe said.
After a month of temperatures in the 80s, the start to June is projected to be much cooler.
Preliminary forecasts from the National Weather Service in Charleston, W.Va., call for temperatures below 80 until June 8.
