Record Watch - First Week of May

Earlier this week I looked at the records that we broke on May 3 and May 4, and the one that we got close to on May 2.

And the final day of the week was another warm one, although not a record breaker:

29.2°C today puts us behind 29.9°C in 1987 and 29.4°C in 1953, but ahead of 28.9°C in 1908.

And with that, we finish a very warm week.

Here we have the 50 warmest days during the first week of May, going back to 1985.

2016 had 6 days in the top 50, in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 18th and 31st spots. It was the only year with 4 days above 25°C, and all of those days were actually above 28°C.

Taking a longer-term view, here are the 50 warmest during the first week of May, going all the way back 1880. (there is actually a 7-way tie for 50th position, so this is really the Top 56)

2016 still had 4 days in this list, in spots 3, 5, 8 and 13. The next closest year was 1911 with 3 days in 11th, 18th and 45th spots.

I grouped these by decade, because it's interesting to see that the 1920s and 1970s each only have one day in the list. The cutoff is quite high at 24.4°C, so those decades might have had other warm days, but not really warm days. The 2010s are only about half over, but between 2013 and 2016 there are already 6 days in the list. That matches the numbers for the 1910s, 1950s, 1980s and 1990s.