Weather as Recorded at the UMass Cranberry Station
East Wareham
Prepared by Carolyn DeMoranville
NOTE: Beginning in July of this year, we began to use the 30 year average for the period 1981 to 2010 as the comparator for the temperature and rainfall data. The reports for January to June 2016 have been modified to reflect this new convention for the entire year, since often we refer to 'year to date' information. The data that have been corrected are in bold.
May weather was about average in temperature but with less sunshine than is normal. Rainfall was above the 30-year average but mainly due to a single event at the end of the month. The temperatures for May averaged 56.2 degrees, 0.4 degrees above the 30-year average. The maximum temperature was 85.1 degrees on the 26th and a minimum temperature of 34.7 degrees was recorded on the 10th. Daytime high temperatures averaged 65.5 degrees, 0.6 degrees above the norm. Evening temperatures averaged 47.9 degrees, 0.9 degrees above the norm.
Based on data from the Blue Hills Observatory, sunshine totaled 47% of the possible sunshine hours, 5 percentage points below the norm. There were 6 days with 90% or better sunshine (similar to the last 2 years) but 9 days with no sunshine at all (there was only 1 last year but 12 in 2014). There were 5 days with fog in East Wareham.
Precipitation totaled 5.07 inch, 1.36 inches above the average rainfall for May in East Wareham. This is the first wet May in the last three years but the large total for 2016 is skewed by a large event on the 30th. There were 10 days with measurable precipitation, 8 with more than 0.1 inch. The largest 24-hour rainfall, accounting for almost 40% of the monthly total, was 1.94 inches on the 30th. Our total year-to-date rainfall is 21.26 inches, only 0.13 inches below the average in East Wareham.
Official Spring Season
The official spring (March-May) had above average temperatures - 47.4 degrees, 1.1 degrees above average - primarily due to a warm March. Snowfall for the period totaled 7.8 inches (all in April), 1.6 inches above average. Precipitation was 0.77 inches below normal at 12.94 inches. Sunshine for the spring was 634 hours, 51% of possible hours for the three month period and 2% above the norm. Sunshine during March was right on average, April was above the norm, and May was well below average.
