When we think of May, one of the first things that come to mind, other than the Lilac Festival, is warmer weather. This wasn’t always the case though this past May as the month saw quite a bit of variability.

What You Need To Know

  • The warmest day in May reached a high of 89 degrees

  • The Rochester airport picked up a trace of snow in May

  • Even with a few days of steadier rain, precipitation fell below average for the month

We started off the month a little above average with a high of 59 degrees, while also seeing some snow on that very first day as well. It wasn’t a ton of snow, though, with the airport observing only a trace.

The snow didn’t last long as temperatures quickly warmed up. By the beginning of the first full week of May, highs rose well above average, peaking near 70 degrees.

After that first full week, we settled into a period of more seasonable and even below-average temperatures for about a week. In fact, the coldest day of the month occurred during that stretch when Rochester recorded a high of 48 degrees on May 7.

Following that cool stretch, it turned quite warm as highs soared well above our typical May average high in the upper 60s. It was so warm, the 18th through the 22nd felt more like summer with high temperatures peaking in the 80s. May 20 and 21 had highs of 88 and 89 degrees, respectively. 

Even with temperatures coming in just shy of 90, we didn’t break any records during that stretch. Rochester did, however, tie the record high temperature a few days later on the 25th, coming in at 88 degrees. It tied the record for the day set back in 2012.

After that, temperatures turned quite cool with four out of five of days coming in below average to close out the month. 

May ended up being almost a 50/50 split with 15 out of 31 days reaching above the monthly 69.4-degree average. In the end, we averaged almost a degree-and-a-half below that at 68 degrees. 

We managed to pick up some much-needed rain throughout the month. It wasn’t always a steady or soaking rain like on the 28th when we picked up 0.57 inches, but it did help some with our overall deficit.

Our total precipitation for the month totaled 1.28 inches, putting us a little more than one-and-a-half inches below our normal 2.86 inches.

Rochester’s monthly snowfall total came in below average as well. We typically see about a tenth of an inch during the month of May. This year ended up with a trace.