CLEVELAND — Well, May was a little bit of a bummer.
April showers persisted into May, causing temperatures to remain unusually low. Even Memorial Day, typically seen as the unofficial beginning of summer, experienced colder-than-average temperatures.
The month as a whole came in 3.3 degrees below average. Other than one week with highs in the 70s and 80s, cooler conditions prevailed.
The warmest day of the month occurred on the 15th, reaching a high of 84 degrees. Throughout May, there were four days with temperatures in the 80s and seven days with highs in the 70s.
However, half of the days came in with low temps in the 40s or 30s. The coldest low was 39 degrees.
May was a rainy month, with Cleveland Hopkins experiencing precipitation on at least 20 days. The total rainfall at the airport was recorded at 5.3 inches, which is 1.51 inches above the average for the month.
The highest 24-hour total for the airport was 1.56 inches, which fell between the 20th and 21st. Locally, higher totals were common for other locations without official reporting stations.
There was also a distinct lack of sunshine that we had to deal with: Only three days were considered “clear,” and over half of our days were “cloudy.” The gloom didn’t stop with just cloud cover — 14 days recorded mist or fog.
Memorial Day weekend didn’t exactly feel like summer, but it was at least dry. Lows were in the 40s and highs didn’t make it above the mid 60s, a far cry from the heat of summer. There was some nice sunshine, though, especially for Memorial Day itself.
May was the third below-average month this year. It’s been a rather cool start to 2025, as January and February were both well below average.
We’ll see how June plays out. After a record low of 40 degrees to start the month, we have managed to mark a couple of 80s so far, with more in the forecast by the later part of next week.
