May Was Very Hot Nationwide; Cold April Forgotten

A thunderstorm erupts in the distance as viewed from Yankton, South
Dakota amid record heat last week. It was 98 degrees in Yankton and 101 in
nearby Sioux City, Iowa. May in the region was among the
hottest on record.

May, 2018 is in the running for the hottest May on record for the Lower 48 states.  If it doesn't turn out to be the hottest, it will come close.

The hottest May on record for the nation as a whole was in the Dust Bowl year of 1934, which turned out to be one of the hottest summers in history, especially in the Great Plains.

That this May was hot doesn't mean this summer will be, but we'll wait and see on that.  

For the record, NOAA predicts a hot June for most of the nation especially in the Southwest and Southern Plains. (They're less certain about warmth in the Northeast.)  NOAA also predicts a generally warm summer, especially in the Southwest, and in New England as we get into July and August.

I will add the caveat that long range forecasts like this aren't all that reliable. It has a pretty good bust potential.

The hot May comes after a generally cold April in the United States. The contrast between the two months is incredible in an area centered around Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. Many cities in and around these states had their coldest April on record.

Then May hit, and in those same spots, the month was in the Top 5 list of hottest Mays on record.

In Minneapolis, May was 30.2 degees warmer than April, which was one of the biggest contrasts between two consecutive months on record.

Here in Vermont, the mean temperature for the month of May in Burlington was 62.2 or 5.9 degrees warmer than average. That made the month the fourth warmest May on record. (The hottest May was in 2015 with a mean temperature of 63.6.

In the very short term, expect a pretty nasty cool wave over the next few days here in Vermont.  It was cool this morning for sure. Island Pond, Vermont managed to get down to 32 degrees this morning.

Monday and Tuesday will feature rain with high temperatures only in the nippy 50s, as opposed to the normal highs in the 70s this time of year. (It could be warmer Monday if we get a few brief peeks of sun between showers, and a couple places in the Northeast Kingdom might not get out of the 40s.)

It'll sort of warm up later in the week, reaching the low 70s by the end of the week.