Today in New York Weather History: May 13

 

1990

During an afternoon downpour, 0.52" of rain came down in a twenty-minute period between 4:12-4:32 PM. 

2005

For the third day in a row the high was an unseasonably warm 86°, seventeen degrees above average.  

2010

After the month started with six days that were 14 degrees warmer than average (high/low of 82°/64°), the past five days were 11 degrees below average (57°/43°), with morning lows in the 41°-44° 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 tenth year in a row in which no rain fell on this date.

 

2017

The day was dreary, raw and wind,y with a steady, all-day rain that amounted to 1.61" (just 0.05" less than the date's rainfall record).  Morning and afternoon temperatures hovered around 50,° and then fell into the 40s during the evening.

2018

It was a cool and dismal Mother's Day, with light showers, drizzle and fog throughout the day (which amounted to just 0.10").  The high of 54° was the coolest reading on the holiday in eight years, and there was just a two-degree difference between the day's high and low.

2019

Rainy and unusually chilly as temperatures stayed in the 40s for the entire day, continuing a streak of hours with sub-50° readings that began at dawn yesterday; today's high/low of 48°/42° was seventeen degrees below average (the low was the chilliest in May in six years).  The 0.70" of rain that fell today (much of it during the afternoon/early evening) followed 1.32" that fell yesterday from a nor'easter.

 

 

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Comments

[Harry Mandel]

(Assuming the temperature does not go up before midnight) 2019 - On a very cold, rainy day more characteristic of March than May, the high was just 48, breaking the "record low high" for the date (previously 50 in 1931). The low of 42 was just 3 above the record low for the date (39 in 1895). It was the 4th latest date in spring to have a high below 50 degrees (May 27, 1961, May 25, 1967 and May 19, 1950).

[William]

2016 - 0.25" of rain fell today. this was the first of four consecutive years with rain on this date. this was the first time since 2002 with rain on this date.

[William]

2019 - today's high was only 48° (five degrees colder than what the typical overnight temp is for the date). only two other May days since 1980 have had a high in the forties (May 12, 2010 and May 4, 1987). the high on both of those days was also 48°. the last time a May day had a colder high temp was on May 5, 1978 (45°). today's high broke 1914's record by one degree for the coldest high temp that ever occurred on this date. this was the first time since April fifth that a day never hit 50° during the entire 24 hour day.

[Rob]

Great findings, thanks for sharing them, Harry. As depressing as the conditions have been during the past few days, imagine how it felt on those even later dates with temperatures in the 40s!

[Rob]

Who would have thought that temperatures in the 40s would generate as much analyses as snowstorms and heat waves!

[William]

high temps in the forties in May happen almost as infrequently as high temps in the thirties in April (with the two most recent such Aprils occurring in 2003 and 1995).

[Harry]

I also just realized that May 9, 2020 had a high in the 40s (also 48, with a low of 34 that was the coldest May temp since 1891). Is that the first/only time two consecutive Mays had a day with a high in the 40?

[William]

to answer the above question, the last time there were consecutive Mays with a daily high temp colder than 50° was in 1977 and 1978 (as well as in 1961 and in 1962). May ninth, 1977 had a high of 44° and May sixth, 1978 had a high of 49°.

[William]

2011 - not only was this the third year in a row with a high of 67° on this date, but approximately half a century earlier, four of the five years from 1963 to 1967 also had a high of 67° on this date. 1965 had a high of 80° on this date.