Top five warmest Mays have been in the last five years
May 2019 will go down as the fourth-warmest May on record according to the latest report from the National Center for Environmental Information. The top five warmest Mays on record have all been in the last five years with records dating back to 1880.
May 2019 was 1.53F above the 20th century average globally. May 2016 remains the warmest on record at 1.67F above normal.
While much of North America experienced below normal temperatures, southern Africa, New Zealand, portions of Asia and Brazil went through the warmest-May on record. Nowhere on the planet saw a record-cold May temperature average during this period.
What is considered meteorological spring in the northern hemisphere (March through May) was the second-warmest on record globally coming in at 1.73F above normal. Only March through May 2016 was warmer at 2.00F above-normal globally.
North America was the only landmass that saw below-normal temperatures.
In the United States, May 2019 was the second-wettest month ever, trailing only May 2015. The period of June 2018 through May 2019 was the wettest 12-month stretch on record. This including the wettest meteorological winter on record in the US.
