Local Forecasts, History & Records
May weather in Durham UK
May Means 1991-2020
Mean Max: 15.4 degC | Mean Min: 6.5 degC | Mean: 11.0 degC | Air Frosts: 0.8 days | Sunshine: 187.1 hrs | Rainfall: 44.4 mm | Days rain: 8.6 days
May 2025 started with a bang. After the heat peaked at the end of April, the 1st May was the warmest ever for that date in the UK. Kew Gardens reached 29.3 degC, closely followed by Wisley and Chertsey at 29.2 degC. We all thought the earliest May day to record the magic 30 degrees was going to be shattered …
May 2024 was classed as ‘very mild’, with the mean a full 2.5 degC above the average, and the mean minimum an extraordinary 4.5 degC above the average. The mean minimum was actually in double figures, something usually reserved for the summer months. Most of the mildness came in the first half of the month, with the warmest temperature (25.0 …
May 2023 starts in showery mood May 2023 started in a showery mood on 1st, with heavy rain and a sharp drop in temperature just after lunch. The thermometer dropped from 15.4 degC at 13:31 to 9.8 degC just an hour later. On 9th there were some very heavy showers, especially around mid-day, yielding 8.6mm in total for the day. …
Temperature The warmer than normal theme in 2022 continued into May, with a mean of 12.8 degC being +1.8 degC above the long term 1991-2020 normal. May 2022 was a full 3.0 degC warmer than May last year. The peak of the temperature was a modest 22.5 degC reached in mid-month. The thermometer only passed 20 degC on four occasions …
May 2021 was notably cold in the first week. Night time temperatures were only a few degrees above freezing in Durham and the maxima were very disappointing. Along with this, rainfall was on the high side, resulting in the cold start to Spring continuing. The cold nights continued until the last 5 days of the month, when ‘normal’ weather returned. …
The Weather in Durham in May 2020. May 2020 continued the Spring theme in Durham, that it was very dry overall, after the first few days, but they yielded some heavy hail showers on May 3rd. This picture was taken in Darlington, about 18 miles to the south of Durham. The weather soon calmed down though and the overwhelming feature …
May 2019 Summary May opened disappointingly cool, with the preponderence of winds from an Northerly and Easterly sector, the direction no-one wants at this time of the year. There was no real warmth until the 13th and then only for three days! Temperatures did recover a bit in the second half, to give an overall mean of 10.9 degC, which …
The report above appeared in the Northern Echo newspaper on 29th May 2019. The axis of funnel clouds may be vertical, inclined (as seen here), or sometimes long and sinuous. In the UK it is usually tens of metres in diamater (not huge). It is much rarer for funnel clouds to touch the ground and that is when they become …
A gorgeous day in May 2018. View from Prebends Bridge looking towards Framwelgate Bridge. It was the precursor of a fantastic summer. The Durham Cathedral tower work continues, still shrouded in it’s protective covering. The stonemasons are replacing weathered stone blocks at the top of the Main Cathedral Tower, as they have become dangerous. The 7th May 2018 was the …
May 2013 felt disappointing although in fact mean air temperature was just a little above average; daytime temperatures were just a little above average and night-time temperatures just a little below. Rainfall was well above average so that the running 12-month total remained above 1000mm for the 6th month in a row, a remarkable sequence. There were heavy falls on …