John McGinley, Nederland. With frequent, slow-moving upper level troughs we had abundant moisture and cool air, enough to give us wetter, snowier and cooler conditions than a normal May. Snow totaled over 15 inches,  most falling in the first half of the month. We had frequent rain-only events in the last half of the month. Liquid totaled 2.8 inches. With all the clouds and precipitation, days stayed on the cool side, a whopping 4 degrees below normal. Without strong westerly flow we were almost windless with only one day over 40mph. 

Precipitation: Snow for the month was 15.4 inches, above the normal of 11 inches. This and the showers and thunderstorms late in the month brought the liquid total to 2.76 inches, above the normal of 2.31 inches. Two events brought most of our precipitation: 1.25 inches (9 inches of snow) from the 6th to the 9th; and 1.16 inches (6 inches of snow) from the 20th to the 22nd.  Another all rain event from the 27th to the 29th  brought about a quarter of an inch. 

Temperature: Cool was the story with an average high of 53F and an average low of 31F. Normals are 59F and 33F, respectively. These combined to make the month 4 degrees below normal. Hottest day was 74F on the 15th. Lowest low was a chilly 22F on the 9th. We had 19 days that went below freezing, delaying the gardening season. This is well above normal.  Coolest high was 32F on the 9th. 

Winds:  Big story here was the lack of windy days. We had many days of north-south flow which reduced any tendency for westerly downslope winds. Our only windy day was 43mph on the 24th. 

Other Features: Large amplitude troughs were the story for the month bringing cool and wet conditions and little wind. Thunderstorms became more frequent later in the month with some dropping hail over the foothills. Many severe storms hit the plains to our east.

Outlook for June:  Climatology shows average highs of 70F. Average lows are near 40F. We get 1.8 inches of rain and an inch of snow. June is a transition month where we see a change from upper level low driven precipitation to more scattered mountain thunderstorms. This can result in wide variation in precipitation amounts. The late part of June is typically dry and warm and leads to higher fire threat. We are already well into the month and have seen temperatures above normal and below normal precipitation. Long range models are showing precipitation possibilities increasing mid month turning dry late in the month.

(Originally published in the June 13, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)