May Was Wet, But Summer Aridity Starts Today

The National Centers for Environmental Information (formerly the National Climatic Data Center) has released the Utah climate data for May.  It was a wet one.  On a statewide basis, it ranks as the 2nd wettest with a total of 3.03", behind only 1995, which recorded 3.06".

For all intents and purposes, the two years plus 1898 (2.97") are essentially indistinguishable given the sparseness, quality, and uncertainties of the precipitation observations.  Basically, it was really wet, but you didn't need a meteorologist to tell you that.

In fact, it was so wet that the January-May precipitation is now a touch above average, despite the tremendous precipitation deficits observed from January-March.

For the October-May water year, however, we're still below average.

We were granted one final burst of thunderstorms yesterday, which was quite enjoyable, but all that rain is in the rearview now.  Summer aridity starts today.