What to expect in May in Central Alabama

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - The month of April somehow only has four full days left. So it’s time to turn our attention to the month of May and dive into the latest monthly outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center.

The Climate Prediction Center (CPC) issues temperature and precipitation outlooks at the end of each month for the next month in line. They are not exact forecasts since predicting the future more than a week ahead of time is quite difficult. Rather, they are general ideas of what the next month will bring to the U.S.

For Alabama and most of the Deep South the outlooks paint a warm and wet picture. Above normal temperatures and above normal rainfall are both favored across the entire state of Alabama.

Average high temperatures in May range from the low 80s to start the month, to the upper 80s to end the month. Typical overnight lows fall into the upper 50s to start the month, with mid-60s being considered normal by the end of May.

Given the above normal temperature outlook I’d look for plenty of days in the 80s and some days in the 90s. The first week or so of May looks slightly below average, but the rest of the month should feature plenty of warmth and heat.

May is, on average, a rather dry month for Montgomery and the rest of Central Alabama. A “typical” May brings just under four inches of rain to the Capital City. Of course this is the average, not what happens every single May.

Sometimes May ends up wet, sometimes it ends up dry and sometimes it ends up near normal.

This year the projection from the CPC favors more rain than normal. Now it’s important to note that it’s possible a bunch of rain comes with one or two systems. It’s also possible to get a wet month with small amounts of rain falling on multiple days.

We can’t tell you how we’ll get there, but we can say the pattern points towards more rain and storm opportunities than normal.

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