The extreme cold and snow of March is a distant memory as May will go down as the warmest on record for much of Western and Northern Europe. With the core of high pressure centred over Scandinavia, here it’s likely been the warmest and driest May on record for Norway, Sweden and Finland combined.
Europe was not alone as the dark red areas show where May was the warmest on record.
This can be largely attributed to a record strong 2.5 sigma North Atlantic Oscillation, a dramatic flip from record negative NAO back at the end of February following the first major sudden stratospheric warming since 2013.
The first 3 months of 2018 was driven by a -NAO.
Then it flipped and we went from very cold to very warm, basically skipping spring. The NAO set a new May positive record.
This dramatic flip was also apparent on the other side of the Atlantic where the US has just observed it’s warmest May on record, exceeding the dustbowl May of 1934. This follows the coldest April since 1997.
Scandinavia was at the epicentre of the May heat wave. Along with Denmark, Norway and Sweden, it was the warmest May for Finland too where it set a new record of 14 days at or above 25C. The previous warmest May for Finland was 1984. While Helsinki set a new May heat record of 29.6C, the Finland heat record of 31C set in 1995 still stands.
Oslo, Norway observed it’s warmest May since 1837.
It was the warmest and sunniest May for Estonia.
The city of Etne set a new Norway heat record for May with 32.7C surpassing the previous record set just last year of 31.8C.
Bergen, Norway set a new May record with 31.2C. This is the city’s warmest day since July 2003 when the city set a new all-time record of 31.8C.
Bergen, Norway (Credit:
Meteorologene @Meteorologene)
Gothenburg, Sweden set a new May record with 31.1C.
May 2018 was the sunniest ever in Stockholm, surpassing July 1994.
Denmark saw it’s warmest and sunniest May and Copenhagen sweated it’s warmest May day with 29.3C, exceeding the long standing record of 28.5C set back in 1886.
The Netherlands experienced it’s warmest May in over 300 years.
It also set a new record warm May minimum, exceeding the previous record set in 2011 by 1.4C.
For the UK it’s been the warmest and sunniest since records began back in 1910.
It's provisionally been the warmest May on record (since 1910) for the UK, with an average daily maximum temperature of 17C, according to Met Office. This beats previous record of 16.9C from May 1992.
It's also sunniest May on record (since 1929) with sunshine 32% above normal. pic.twitter.com/fDgEZ7et4A
— Liam Dutton (@liamdutton) June 1, 2018
Provisional statistics suggest that May 2018 has been the second warmest May in Central England since 1878. pic.twitter.com/MpFJuThe1V
— Steve Jackson (@bablakewx) June 1, 2018
France recorded it’s 4th warmest May and would likely have been warmest on record had it not been for the anomalous cold during the first week of the month across the south. However Paris still observed 25 days at or above 20C. The most since 1990.
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