Friday 2 June 2017

A Very Mild May

May turned out to be a dry mild month. Whilst it wasn't the driest May I've recorded since 2010 it was the mildest. However, I don't think it was that good a gardening month even though the average temperature for the month was the highest over the last seven years.
May High Temperature Records 2010 - 2017
The colour code for the table above is that dark red represents higher than average temperatures, dark blue colder than average and white around average for May. As you can see May didn't start off that well but finished off very warm which included the hottest May day I've recorded at 28.6°C on 25 May.

Looking at a similar chart but this time for May's low temperatures we see a very similar pattern with the month's early low temperatures below average.
May Low Temperature Records 2010 - 2017

It wasn't until the middle of the month that the month's low temperatures improved and these are the temperatures that are most important as they govern how well our plants are going to grow. 
To make gardening matters even worse the month started off very dry, following on from a dry April.
Temperature & Rainfall Records for May 2017
The first two weeks were completely dry coinciding with temperatures below average too. At times it was difficult to know if plants were struggling because they were cold or because they were dry. It also feels rather odd watering plants when the weather feels on the chilly side. Watering is a job to do when the weather's nice and sunny.
To finish with here's my full list of average May temperatures since 2017.


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