Weather by David Uttley: May - the month that the rains came...
MAY 2009
IT was a month with more rainfall than expected, 116.5mm (163 per cent), falling on 23 days compared with the norm of about 15 days. Temperatures were also above the monthly average by about 1C at 11.6C.
There were only two brief dry spells during the month on the 11th and 12th and again on the 23rd and 24th until four days at the end of May - a dry period which extended into early June. There were no exceptionally heavy falls but there were wet spells on the 4th/5th (see graph) and the wettest week was from the 14th to 20th with 69.0mm (almost 60 per cent of the total), the wettest day being the 20th at 15.0mm. Also there was heavy rain with thunder on the evening of the 14th.
Daytime temperatures were close to or slightly below average, ie 15.2C, up to the 22nd (see graph) but climbed in the last three days, reaching 22.7C on the 25th, and 25.2C on the 29th, five days exceeding the 20C mark. There were no air frosts - May has one on average - but there were several cool nights in the first half of the month, down to 2.6C on the 10th but minimum temperatures eventually rose above the average (6.0C) reaching 10.7C on the 23rd.
It was the third sunny month in succession with an estimated total of 169 hours (5.45 hours per day mean) and a cloud cover at 9am of 58.9 percent with 16 overcast or cloudy mornings.
There was no mist or fog at observation times and realtive humidity was close to the norm at 74.6 per cent.
There were spells of westerly winds over the first nine days and again from the 18th to 20th and 25th to 28th, including south west on twelve mornings.
Easterly winds often coincided with high pressure systems as on the 11th and 12th (1028.1mb) and again at the month end (1034.1mb on the 29th). Pressure fell below 1000mb on three occasions: the 8th, 15th and 16th (the latter with 996.6mb).
There was one morning with calm conditions (21st) but wind speeds were often between force three (gentle) and force four (moderate breeze) rising to force six (strong) on the 8th, but there were no gales.
SPRING 2009
RAINFALL amounts in March and April were below average but a wetter May brought the three month total to 241.9mm, which is about 90 per cent of the expected value for the season.
There was no measurable snow but there were three days with snow or sleet and four with hail during March.
Temperatures were generally above the seasonal average and this was particularly the case in April so that the mean value for spring was 9.2C, almost 2C above the expected.
By far the warmest days came in the latter part of May, although 19.9C was recorded on April 20.
There were eight air frosts in all, seven of which occurred in March, the last being on April 5 at minus 0.5C.
An estimated 443.0 hours of bright sunshine made for above average values by about 60 hours or 0.66 hours per day. this might be compared with the figures for recent years which include: 486 hours (2007) and 512.5 hours (2003), 400 hours having been surpassed in all but two years since 2001 (ie 2006 and 2008).
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Weather for Halifax
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North west
