1990
0.52" of rain came down in just twenty minutes during an afternoon downpour between 3:12-3:32 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 normal (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 windy 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 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.
(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).
Posted by: Harry Mandel | 05/13/2019 at 07:29 PM
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.
Posted by: William | 05/13/2019 at 09:30 PM
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.
Posted by: William | 05/14/2019 at 08:30 AM
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!
Posted by: Rob | 05/14/2019 at 10:59 PM
Who would have thought that temperatures in the 40s would generate as much analyses as snowstorms and heat waves!
Posted by: Rob | 05/15/2019 at 01:38 AM
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).
Posted by: William | 05/15/2019 at 01:52 PM