Late-May Cold Sweeps North America; Cool May In Europe, Then Narrative Flip; + Strong El Niño May Be Setting Up A La Niña Problem
El Niño may deliver the headline heat. But the follow-up could be a long La Niña arriving just as Solar Cycle 25 descends into minimum.
Late-May Cold Sweeps North America
A cold air mass is driving south through the CONUS, dragging snow across the higher terrain and sending temperatures to record lows from Wyoming to Colorado.
Rawlins, WY, had already broken its all-time May low on May 19, with 8F (-13.3C) beating the old monthly mark of 10F (-12.2C) from 2013. The cold then held. On May 20, Rawlins fell again to 17F (-8.3C), breaking the daily record of 20F (-6.7C) set in 2001. Weather books there date back to 1959.
Colorado joined the list on May 21, when Grand Junction Regional Airport dropped to 32F (0C), beating the old daily record of 33F (0.6C) from 1974 (in books back to 1893).
Farther south, Oklahoma City tied its record cold high for May 20, reaching only 63F (17.2C), matching the mark set in 1942. Not a record minimum, but still a suppressed late-spring maximum deep in the Plains.
The wintry conditions also impacted Canada.
In northern Quebec, La Grande-Rivière Airport near Radisson picked up nearly 13 cm (5.1 inches) of new snow from May 20 to 21, lifting its monthly total to 34 cm (13.4 inches). Meteorologist Patrick Duplessis said that marks a new May snowfall record in data since 1977.
Cool May, Then Narrative Flip
Central England Temperature data show May running very cool through the first 19 days.
The provisional mean stands at 10.5C (50.9F), which is -0.6C below the Met Office’s old 1961-1990 baseline that it still insists on using (the cooler the baseline, the hotter the present appears).
