A wet start to May

Posted on 19 May, 2015 by Met Office Press Office

It has been a wet start to May with the UK already having seen more than its normal full-month rainfall after just 17 days.

Early Met Office figures up to the 17th of the month show the UK has had 74.1mm of rain – which is just over the full-month May average of 70.0mm.

Looking at individual countries – Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have all had more than their full month average, while England is just under.

Much of this rain fell in the first 10 days of the month, with relatively less rainfall since then. It’s far too early to say where the month’s rainfall will end up, but at this stage it looks unlikely that we’d see any records.

It has also been colder than average so far with a UK mean temperature of 9.2C, which is 1.2C below the full-month average.

As May is a transition month to warmer weather, you’d normally expect the first half of the month to be slightly below the full-month average – but even so, it has been cooler than normal.

Sunshine has been very close to average so far.

Mean Temperature Sunshine hours Rainfall  
1-17 May 2015
 Actual Diff to Avg Actual % of Avg Actual % of Avg
  degC degC hours % mm %
UK 9.2 -1.2 93.9 51 74.1 106
England 10.5 -0.7 96.8 51 55.4 95
Wales 9.5 -1.1 81.3 44 97.3 113
Scotland 6.9 -1.9 94.8 53 97.3 115
N Ireland 8.8 -1.4 81.0 44 82.1 113
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2 Responses to A wet start to May

  1. Tony says:
    19 May, 2015 at 2:41 pm

    Yep, 52.6mm has fallen in West Berkshire according to my AWS and that tallies very closely to the 54.6mm expected as per CSE and Oxford region stats using 1981-2010 standards. A drier period upcoming though, here’s hoping it lasts for the UK wildlife and farming scene.

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