1979 - It was a very soggy day as 2.70" of rain fell, the rainiest day of the month and a record for the date. Between 8-9PM 1.10" poured down.
1981 - A beautiful first day of Memorial Day weekend as temperatures were in the upper 70's under clear skies. And the next two days were equally nice and even warmer.
1988 - Today was the first 80-degree day of the year, tying 1984 for the latest date of this occurrence (for the period 1979-2012). However, despite this late date the summer would be a very hot one, with thirty-two 90-degree days.
1992 - This was the Saturday of what would be a Jekyl & Hyde Memorial Day weekend. Today was scorchingly hot with a high of 92, but a drastic change occurred the next day when a strong cold front moved through. This set up a Memorial Day that felt more like late October.
1994 - After a coolish morning low of 56 degrees the temperature rocketed to 91 under sunny skies. Today also happened to be the funeral of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, which was held in Manhattan (afterward her body was flown to Arlington National Cemetery in Virigina where she was buried next to her first husband, President John F. Kennedy).
1999 - Scattered showers that fell throughout the day amounted to 0.30", the first rain on this date in 10 years.
1992 - Today's high of 93 was the first 90-degree day of the year, twenty degrees hotter than normal. However, it was bearable because the humidity was very low (and the morning low was a comfortable 60 degrees). Eight more 90-degree days would follow through late August, half the usual number of hot days.
2000 - Although the light showers that fell in the afternoon produced just .05" of rain, it was the first rain to fall on this date in 14 years.
2012 - The 1.64" of rain that fell over the past two days (1.40" on 5/21 and 0.24" this morning) brought the month's total precipitation over four inches, making this the wettest month since October when six inches was measured.
1985 - Heavy rain fell between 4-10PM, amounting to 1.60". During one 15-minute period (between 5:55-6:10 PM) 0.48" of rain thundered down.
1996 - This was the second day in a row with a record high as the mercury topped out at 93. The next 90-degree day wouldn't be for another two months (and it was the only other such day of the summer.)
2002 - This was the last of four consecutive days with morning lows in the chilly low 40's, well below the average low of 55.
2012 - After four days in a row of sunny and mild weather, today was a gray, rainy Monday. 1.40" of rain fell, with a particularly heavy downpour occurring during AM rush hour, with 0.57" measured between 8-9:00.
1990 - 0.52" of rain came down in just twenty minutes during an afternoon downpour between 3:12-3:32 PM.
2004 - For the third day in a row the high was an unseasonably warm 86 degrees, seventeen degrees above average.
2010 - After the month started with six days that were 14 degrees warmer than normal (high/low of 82/64), the past five days were 11 degrees below average (57/43) with morning lows in the 41-44 degree range.
2012 - This was one of the warmest Mother's Days in a while as the afternoon high topped out at 81, eleven degrees above average. It was also the warmest day in four weeks and the 10th year in a row in which no rain fell on this date.
1987 (May 10) - In the years I've lived in NYC (since 1979) this was the hottest Mother's Day, as the high reached 90 (a 30-degree rebound from the morning low). This was 20 degrees above normal. However, because the humidity was low it wasn't uncomfortable. (Mother's Day 1991 and 1993 would each have highs of 89.)
1996 (May 12) - A strong cold front moved through last night and the temperature this afternoon was only in the upper 50's after being in the mid-80's on Saturday.
1998 (May 10) - A truly miserable day as a steady all-day rain amounted to nearly two inches. The high was only 58. During the 4-day period between May 8-11 4.32" of rain fell.
2000 (May 14) - Today's high of 73/low of 56 was the same as Mother's Day last year.
2010 (May 9) - Very chilly with a high of only 52, seventeen degrees below average. The morning low of 44 was the chilliest for Mother's Day in the 1979-2012 period.
2011 (May 8) - It was a pretty day with a high of 74, five degrees milder than average. Bright sunshine in the morning gave way to a mix of sun and puffy cumulus clouds during the afternoon.
2012 (May 13) - This was one of the warmest Mother's Days in a while as the afternoon high topped out at 81, eleven degrees above average, under partly cloudy skies. Today's high was the warmest in four weeks.
1981 - Rain fell for much of the day and amounted to 1.67". It came down heaviest between 6 and 8PM when 0.70" fell.
1993 - After a morning low of 57 the mercury climbed rapidly and topped out at 92 degrees, a record for the date. This was the year's first of thirty-nine 90-degree days, tying 1991 for the most ever.
1998 - 4.32" of rain fell between May 8-11, the typical amount of rain for the entire month of May. Today's rainfall totalled 0.68".
1972 - The day was rainy (1.19" fell) and very chilly, with a high/low of only 49/46. The high was 20 degrees colder than normal.
1977 - It was a gray, damp and downright cold day, which felt more like early March. The high/low was only 44/38, twenty degrees below average (the high was twenty-five degrees colder than average). This is the last time a temperature in the 30's was reported in May.
1979 - Today's high reached 94, twenty-five degrees above average. This was the first 90-degree temperature of the year and a record for the date.
1998 - It was a dreary, rainy Mother's Day weekend as 1.42" of rain fell today (Saturday) and 1.94" would fall tomorrow.
2000 - Today's high was 91, the third day in a row of 90-degree temperatures. It was the longest such streak of the year. There would be only four more 90-degree days for the rest of the year.
2009 - Rain fell for eight of the past nine days. 4.43" fell during this damp beginning of May, but only 0.74" would fall for the rest of the month.
2010 - It was a very chilly Mother's Day with a high of only 52, seventeen degrees below average. The morning low of 44 was the chilliest temperature during the holiday in the 1979-2012 period.
1980 - After a low of 57 the high jumped to 90, a record for the date. This was the first 90-degree day of the summer, about three weeks earlier than normal; thirty-one more would follow (most of them in July and August).
1988 - 0.83" of rain fell in three hours between 4-7PM. 1.11" fell for the entire day.
2007 - This was the fifth day in a row in which the morning low was 50 or 51.
2009 - Gray and drizzly conditions persisted for a fifth day in a row, keeping the temperature from rising very much; the high was 54 (fourteen degrees below average), just slightly above the morning low of 51.
1987 - Showery and unseasonably chilly with a high of just 48 degrees (nineteen degrees below average) after a low of 44.
2001 - This was the third day in a row of 90-degree heat and the fourth day in a row with a record high temperature. This somewhat mirrored another early May hot spell the previous year between May 5-9.
2002 - Today was the fourteenth day in a row with below-average temperatures (5 degrees below average). This was in stark contrast to mid-April's heat wave in which seven days had temperatures that averaged 23 degrees above normal.
1979 - It was a very soggy day as 2.70" of rain fell, the rainiest day of the month and a record for the date. Between 8-9PM 1.10" poured down.
1994 - After a coolish morning low of 56 degrees the temperature rocketed to 91 under sunny skies. Today also happened to be the funeral of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, which was held in Manhattan (afterward her body was flown to Arlington National Cemetery in Virigina where she was buried next to her first husband, President John F. Kennedy).
