Did May seem weirdly warm? It was.

In my hometown of Hudson, WI, last month was unusually and noticeably warm. We normally open our backyard pool around Memorial Day. This year, it was open and in use a good 3 weeks earlier.

As it turns out, this type of experience was common.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently released its temperature and weather data for last month, and the contiguous United States had its warmest May since record keeping began in 1895.

may-2018-us-average-temperature-percentiles-map
Image credit: NOAA/NCEI. Mean temperature percentiles for May 2018 compared with all May’s during the 124-year period since 1895.

Some highlights, straight from NOAA’s May, 2018 data set:

These are the most recent monthly temperature records that, along with recent annual temperature records (2016, 2017) have been set as part of a generally rising global temperature trend that has been observed since the Industrial Revolutions (for more information, see my detailed article).

#rescuethatfrog

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.