A preponderance of northerly winds through the first few weeks of May led to some cool temperatures, with daytime maximums frequently only 12 or 13 Celsius.

Indeed, the maximum of 15.2C on the first of the month was not surpassed until the 20th.

In conjunction, many nights towards the beginning of the month were cold, with three ground frosts recorded (and two near misses where a ground frost was missed by only 0.1 or 0.2C). The early part of the month was also dry, continuing on from April.

So, around the middle of the month, the average temperature was running well below normal since records began.

However, that’s where things changed. Temperatures began to rise around the 20th, and there was also some decent rainfall for a few days, with about 20mm recorded in the week up to the 22nd.

Beyond that a notable warm spell occurred, with a strong build of pressure over much of the UK (shattering the all-time UK May maximum in London).

In the island we experienced three days above 20C, with the warmest 23.1C on the 26th, not too far from the May record of 23.8C and starting TT with ideal conditions.

The result of this meant that the month as a whole temperature-wise ended up being above average again (11.9C the average temperature across the whole month, 0.7C above the May mean).

Cooler conditions then took over again near the very end the month, with temperatures falling back to the late May normal.

A little more rain was recorded in the last few days, but despite this it was overall rather dry with only 37.6mm measured all month (around 20mm short of the mean).

Sunshine came in very close to average, a total of 239.5 hours over the month.