Hot flashes: May temps in Delaware a roller coaster ride

By Mike Finney
Posted 5/20/21

DOVER — Over the next seven days, there will be those times when people get the urge to jump in their cars and head to the beach and nights when they will be looking in their closets for their …

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Hot flashes: May temps in Delaware a roller coaster ride

Posted

DOVER — Over the next seven days, there will be those times when people get the urge to jump in their cars and head to the beach and nights when they will be looking in their closets for their sweaters.

It’s just going to be that kind of fickle May weather week in Delaware, where individuals get the itch to get outdoors — especially after being confined to their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic for the past year — yet still have to deal with the cooler temperatures in the evenings.

While temperatures crept up to the mid-80s throughout most of Delaware on Wednesday afternoon, meteorologists from Dover Air Force Base are expecting temperatures to hit 90 degrees on Sunday and are predicting it to get up to 92 degrees next Wednesday.

But before the temps get set to soar, they are expecting highs of around 77 degrees today and 79 on Friday.

“This is just how the weather is in Delaware, especially when it comes to May,” said Mark Johnson, of Dover. “I attended the NASCAR race at Dover last Sunday and it felt like it got up to around 80 degrees early in the afternoon before clouds came and quickly dropped the temps to what felt like the 60s by the end of the race.

“With May around here you just never know, particularly if you are planning on having or attending an event. Rain can come at any time — and usually does.”

Coolweather.net noted that this year’s brush with hot weather in May is not out of the ordinary.

It said the first day with a 90-or-higher temperature in Delaware typically occurs in May or early June.

An average of one day with a maximum temperature of 90 or higher occurs in May. The last day with a maximum temperature of 90 or higher usually occurs in September, or infrequently in early October.

“I’ll take it, it definitely gives you a chance to get outside for a change,” said Katie Bilbrook, of Magnolia, as she took her son Tyler for a walk on the trails at Brecknock Park on Wednesday afternoon. “Everybody knows what each other has had to endure over the past year, so it’s definitely nice to try to get outside and put the era of COVID behind us.

“Things are finally looking up when it comes to beating COVID, so yeah, I feel comfortable getting outside again — hey, I’ve had my two (COVID) shots.”

May still brings with it average high temperatures in the pleasant 73- to 77-degree range, while the nights cool down into the 51-degree to 55-degree range. An average of five inches of rain typically falls on Delaware in May, speeding up the growing season.

The upcoming warming trend will not be termed a “heatwave,” which is a period of unusually hot weather that can last for days and weeks. In meteorology, one definition is when there is a high temperature of 90 degrees or more for three or more days in a row.

“Some of these warm days remind me that summer is right around the corner,” said Ryan Collier, from Selbyville. “They also remind me that I haven’t had a vacation in more than a year.

“It might be time to get out my set of darts and start taking some shots to see where I might eventually end up this summer.”

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