May 2012 Summary

In Brief:
Mainly dry apart from a short wet spell in the second week.  Rather cool for May, although the last 10 days, and particularly nights, were warmer.  

Temperature [Minimum]:
The coldest night of the month was that of the 11th/12th with a low of 6.6 degs C. Equalling the coldest night of May 2011, this is a high figure for May's coldest night, as there have been colder nights every May from at least 2004.
Before May 2012 the warmest May night at this location* was 14.0 degs C, which occurred in 2010.  That figure was beaten 5 times this month, mostly in the last 7 days, and the warmest night of all being that of the 24th/25th, when the temperature didn't fall below 16.2 degs C.  This was also the warmest night since 9th/10th September 2011.
The average night-time temperature for May 2012 was 10.56 degs C, which was only the second highest of the last nine Mays.  May 2008 was highest with 11.51 degs C.

Temperature [Maximum]:
The coldest day of the month was the 15th with 13.3 degs C, and the warmest the 25th with 23.0 degs C. This led to an average maximum temperature of 17.44 degs C. Unlike with nights, even the warmer last 10 days of the month could not lift this May's average any higher than the third coldest of the last nine.
The maximum exceeded 20 degs C 5 times, which is average for the last nine Mays.

Rainfall:
A total of 36.6 mm of rain fell during the month, making this May the wettest since 2009 - however the previous two Mays were very dry and this May was still the second driest month of the year so far.
The wettest day itself was the 9th with 8.9 mm, and there were only two other days [7th and 27th] with more than 5.0 mms.
Most of the month's rain fell between the 7th and 10th, and on the 14th and 27th.
The first six days had no measurable rain, as did the last four, and only 1 mm fell between the 15th and 25th.
There were 22 completely dry days - this is the most per month since April 2011, and the most of the last five Mays.

Thunder:
There was no thunder this month.

*Since at least 2003.