Warm days outnumbered cool days three to one during May. Taking the month as a whole the Central England Temperature last month was 12.6 °C, which is 1.3 degC above the average for the standard reference period 1971-2000. There have been only 15 warme r Mays in the last 100 years, but three of these occurred in the 1990s - 1992, 1998 and 1999. There were two spells of very high temperatures: from the 10th to the 13th, and from the 22nd to the 30th. The hottest day of all was the 11th when a maximum of 28°C was recorded at Kensington in London and at Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, but a spell of very humid weather near the month's end resulted in some exceptionally high overnight minima including 17°C at Norwich early on the 28th. By contrast the 17th was abnormally cold with a midday temperature of 4.3°C at High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire.

Rainfall during May, averaged over England and Wales, was 36.7mm which is just 57 per cent of the long-term normal. It therefore ended the eight consecutive months of heavy rain, and it was the first drier-than-average month in southern Britain since August last year. Indeed we have to go back to March 2000 to find a drier month, and it was the driest May since 1998. In Scotland, last month's rainfall was a mere 19.8mm, just 37 per cent of the normal, making it the driest May here since 1991, while in Northern Ireland the equivalent figures were 44.2mm and 76 per cent. Dry weather prevailed throughout the month apart from short un settled spells from the 13th-18th and 27th-28th, but Manchester collected most of its 82mm during these two wet episodes. Driest regions were eastern Scotland and northeast England, and at Perth only 11mm rain fell.

Averaged over England and Wales May's aggregate sunshine was 233 hours, some 16 per cent above the long-term mean, making it the sunniest May since 1997. At Newquay in Cornwall the total was 295 hours, 37 per cent above the local average.