Ithaca Climate Summary for May 1997

Temperature

• With an average temperature of 50.7 degrees, the month of May was 4.3 degrees cooler than normal.
• It was the coolest May since 1968 and the 18th coolest on record.
• This was the 4th consecutive year with a cooler-than-normal May.
• The warmest reading of the month was 76 degrees on the 31st.
• The coldest temperature of the month was 26 degrees on the 8th.

Freezes

• The date of the last spring 32 degree temperature was May 27th - 15 days later than normal.
• The date of the last spring 28 degree temperature (often referred to as a hard freeze) was May 8th - 6 days later than normal.

Precipitation

• May was the 5th consecutive month with drier than normal weather, giving us a year-to-date deficit of 3.41 inches (84% of normal).
• The total precipitation for the month was 2.78 inches, which was 72% of the monthly normal.
• We received nearly 3 inches less precipitation this month than the same month last year.

Snowfall

• There was no measurable snowfall reported during May.
• The seasonal total, therefore, for the 1996-97 winter was 51.5 inches, which was 15.7 inches less than normal (77%).
• This seasonal total exceeded the accumulation of 6 of the last 20 winters.