State Climatologist Harry Hillaker says May proved to be a month that was at times more suited to hot chocolate than iced tea. He says May overall was a little cooler than normal — averaging about one-point-seven degrees below normal. Hillaker says the start of May continued the late April cool trend. He says the first four days of May were well below normal with 95-percent of the state having a freeze on the fourth day of May. He says some places got as low as 19 degrees — which he says is very low for May. The early cold came with lots of rain — but then things evened out. He says the last half of the month was much drier, with frequent rainfall, but not amounting to much. He says overall the rainfall was about one-quarter inch less than normal. Hillaker says the first five months of the year have been pretty close to average overall temperature wise. He says we had a warmer than normal February and April, but the other months have been about normal to give us an average overall temperature just a little about normal, “But nothing very significant there.” Precipitation has also been average in the first five months of 2005. He says we may be about one-tenth of an inch below normal. He says the far eastern part of the state is below normal in precipitation, while the southwest, west-central and north-central parts of the state have been above normal in precipitation.
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