Weather extremes

May Weather

The average rainfall for Ipswich for the month of May is now 2.61.

Out of 47 years, there were 21 years that exceeded this average and 26 years that were less.

Ten of the years that were less than average were under an inch of rain which isn’t much for the start of a growing season. The least for these 10 years was .52 during May, 2009.

Now we come to the 21 Mays in which rainfall was more than average. We’ll deal with some of the most extreme May rain events.

All of these had an affect on farmer’s planting schedule.

1991: Extreme high rainfall throughout May that totaled 7.22. Most of the rain total came on the 3rd (1.15), 15th (2.32) & 22nd (1.10). Noisy month with thunder and lightning 13 nights. This moisture for May made crop seeding difficult because April had 2.85 of precip. and June 4.30. The 7.22 of moisture for May, 1991 was the second most I have ever recorded for this month.

1995: High moisture at 5.45 with the most on the 8th and 9th totaling 2.70. What made the planting schedule difficult for this May was the 11 inches of snow on the ground on April 18. Even though this snow was pretty much melted by the 22nd it delayed field work until May. Moisture amounts in early June were low so this helped planting plans.

(More rainy Mays next week)