by Barney Leach
Spring rainfall continued below normal for the second month. May rainfall was 0.73 inch below normal at 3.86 inches bringing our total for the year to 16.19 inches. We had four days with measureable rainfall with a greatest one-day total of 1.65 inch on May 20. Normal rainfall through May is 19.20 inches. May is normally our second wettest month of the year. Normal rainfall for May is 4.59 inches.
Temperature-wise, the below normal temperatures we had in April are history. May temperatures ran somewhat above normal with several days in the upper nineties. We had a low temperature of 51 degrees on May 6 and a high temperature of 98 degrees on May 16.
RAINFALL BY MONTH IN INCHES
Month Rainfall Normal Departure
January 0.74 3.62 -2.88
February 4.58 3.36 +1.22
March 5.83 4.33 +1.50
April 1.18 3.30 -2.12
May 3.86 4.59 -0.73
Total 16.19 19.20 -3.01
Looking ahead to June: June is normally our third warmest month and fourth wettest month of the year at 4.03 inches. The 2018 Farmer’s Almanac forecasts above normal temperatures and near normal rainfall for all of Texas.
Normal rainfall values currently used were derived from averages over the twenty-year period from 1997 through 2016.
The above rainfall and temperature data was recorded by Barney Leach, former co-op weather volunteer for the National Weather Service and former weather volunteer for Channel 8 in Dallas, Channel 10 in Waco and radio station KNES in Fairfield.
