May Weather In Colorado Can Deliver Just About Anything
DENVER(CBS)- Happy May Day!
Get ready for what could be a wild weather ride. In Denver and Colorado for that matter, May is a month that can go from super beautiful to super stormy in an instant. May can go from high and dry to cold and wet. It can give you rays of sunshine or golf balls of hail!
It is a month of transition. Bridging the gap from the cool side of spring to the warmth of summer and just about anything can happen.
May on average is Denver's wettest month of the year. Soaking showers and moisture packed thunderstorms have boosted the average precipitation number for this month to 2.12 inches. The soggiest May ever recorded was in 1876 with 8.57 inches that year!
Colorado can see severe weather during any month of the year. But, May seems to kind of be a kick off for severe weather as cold fronts clash with warm, moist air that can start moving north into the central Rockies and eastern plains from the Pacific, Gulf of California and Gulf of Mexico. That along with more daytime heating can really start to get storms going.
May can see snow too. But, it is rare to see much. The average is 1.1 inches the least amount of all the snow producing months from September through May. Putting the month at 9th snowiest on average. That being said there have been a few years that dumped in May.
HERE ARE THE TOP 10 SNOWIEST MAY'S IN DENVER
15.5 INCHES 1898
13.7 1950
13.5 1978
13.2 1921
12.0 1917
10.0 1908
9.0 1907
8.9 1893
8.8 1957
8.3 1944
And if that is not enough some of the severe storms can produce tornadoes on occasion. The deadly Windsor Tornado happened on May 22 in 2008. And typically, the more severe thunderstorms tend to start popping in the second half of the month.
Although, the peak month for twisters is yet to come, that's the month of June!