MAY 2001 WEATHER REVIEW
FROST IN EARLY MAY!!! RECORD HEAT LATE!!!!
A month of extremes to say the least. Perhaps in response to the dramatic
Solar activity of last month, FROST was noted at the bottom of the hill I
live on the 2nd. While temps at my place only reached 43F, the air
was so still for a few hours before dawn, and with origins from the north,
the coldest air settled into the lowest valleys and created this highly
unusual event. By 0930, winds were back up and gusting to near 30mph..The
frost was a full 3-4 weeks later than anything I can remember. An interesting
side note to this event, while it was dead calm here, winds were clocked
at 50+ mph in the East Bay hills with damaging winds reported elsewhere.
While we are often sheltered from the strongest winds, we always get
some...except this time. Reports coming in from agri-business interests are
saying that last month's (April) and May's cold may have taken a heavy toll
on crops over a wide range of varieties, with damage heaviest in the northern
sections of the state, with damage in the Central parts also reported.
Hardest hit appears to have been the wine and fruit producers.
We were hard pressed to see any clouds at all (excluding the fog, that is),
as only .03" of precip (in the form of drizzle) fell. However, trees
and virtually all forms of flora are lush this Spring, primarily due to moderate
Winter rains, overall cool temps interspersed with periods of warmth, and
the mild Summer and Autumn temps of last year, all coupled with lower
than normal fire seasons over the last few years. This year, things
are likely to be different as fire officials have already raised the Red
Flag alerting residences of an extremely high fire danger for the upcoming
fire season.
After the frost on the 2nd, things got roaring hot by the 30th, setting all
kinds of records including an unbelievable 101F in San Francisco, and 92
(briefly) here. In Spring Valley, the "official" RAWS site about nestled
in the coastal hills 3 miles from here as the crow flies, temps hit 96. By
comparison, San Francisco's alltime high is 104 and 96 here in Pacifica,
so here in May we neared hottest-ever conditions. An interesting note is
the record highs mentioned above occurred just last year on June 14, so the
current "La Nada" weather pattern seems to be anything but "nothing". Can't
help but think that the intense Solar activity in April as mentioned a while
back set the stage for the unusual extremes noted this month.
And now, the data.
MONTHLY CLIMATOLOGICAL SUMMARY for MAY. 2001
NAME: HOME CITY: Pacifica STATE: Ca ELEV: 540' LAT: 37.36'N LONG: 122.27'W
TEMPERATURE (°F), RAIN (in), WIND SPEED (mph)
HEAT COOL AVG
MEAN DEG DEG WIND DOM
DAY TEMP HIGH TIME LOW TIME DAYS DAYS RAIN SPEED HIGH TIME DIR
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 54.4 63.7 8:45a 46.7 12:00m 9.8 0.0 0.00 3.1 17.0 2:00a SSW
2 60.2 71.4 5:30p 43.8 5:45a 7.4 0.0 0.01 5.4 28.0 9:15a N
3 65.1 75.8 2:00p 51.4 12:00m 1.4 0.0 0.00 4.7 24.0 7:45a N
4 60.2 74.1 2:15p 48.9 4:30a 3.5 0.0 0.00 1.7 11.0 11:00a NE
5 57.3 67.1 2:45p 47.7 5:15a 7.6 0.0 0.00 2.2 10.0 12:00p SSW
6 58.7 71.8 1:30p 46.1 4:45a 6.0 0.0 0.00 1.8 9.0 11:30a SSW
7 65.8 84.5 11:30a 50.1 1:30a 0.0 2.3 0.00 1.9 15.0 10:15a S
8 62.0 77.5 12:15p 50.8 5:30a 0.8 0.0 0.00 1.7 10.0 2:00p SSW
9 56.1 67.8 8:45a 48.2 6:00a 7.0 0.0 0.00 2.6 16.0 6:30p SSW
10 60.0 72.8 3:15p 46.6 4:15a 5.3 0.0 0.00 1.6 9.0 11:45a NW
11 60.1 74.2 12:45p 50.8 5:15a 2.5 0.0 0.00 2.9 19.0 11:00a W
12 55.6 62.5 3:00p 52.5 4:15a 7.5 0.0 0.00 5.2 22.0 9:00a S
13 54.8 60.1 1:00p 51.7 4:15a 9.1 0.0 0.00 4.9 17.0 12:45p S
14 57.2 64.0 2:00p 51.8 3:45a 7.1 0.0 0.00 3.5 16.0 11:15a SSW
15 59.7 68.8 2:00p 52.4 5:00a 4.4 0.0 0.00 2.1 11.0 2:30p SSW
16 57.0 64.4 12:30p 52.8 12:00m 6.4 0.0 0.02 3.0 18.0 4:00p SSW
17 57.2 66.4 11:00a 51.6 12:00m 6.0 0.0 0.00 3.1 13.0 3:00p SSW
18 57.2 65.4 10:00a 50.1 3:30a 7.3 0.0 0.00 2.3 11.0 1:30a SSW
19 62.5 75.3 2:30p 49.1 5:00a 2.8 0.0 0.00 1.8 10.0 12:30p SSW
20 60.0 70.9 2:00p 49.8 5:30a 4.7 0.0 0.00 1.8 9.0 10:30a SSW
21 62.8 77.3 1:30p 50.6 5:30a 1.0 0.0 0.00 1.8 11.0 1:00p S
22 59.9 72.6 12:30p 50.8 5:30a 3.3 0.0 0.00 2.0 10.0 1:00p S
23 56.7 67.5 12:00p 49.8 12:00m 6.3 0.0 0.00 2.0 11.0 5:30p SSW
24 56.3 64.5 12:00p 47.8 5:30a 8.8 0.0 0.00 1.6 10.0 12:00p SSW
25 55.0 62.5 1:00p 50.4 12:30a 8.5 0.0 0.00 2.2 10.0 4:30p SSW
26 53.0 56.7 2:00p 50.6 5:30a 11.3 0.0 0.00 3.5 13.0 2:30p SSW
27 54.0 60.8 12:30p 50.9 6:30a 9.2 0.0 0.00 4.6 19.0 2:30p SSW
28 54.9 60.0 2:30p 51.8 12:00m 9.1 0.0 0.00 5.4 22.0 6:30a SSW
29 57.3 66.9 3:00p 47.8 6:00a 7.7 0.0 0.00 2.3 10.0 2:00p SSW
30 72.5 91.3 1:30p 51.6 12:30a 0.0 6.4 0.00 2.2 22.0 12:30p N
31 72.8 86.5 1:00p 59.3 12:00m 0.0 7.9 0.00 1.4 12.0 3:00p WSW
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
59.2 91.3 30 43.8 2 171.9 16.7 0.03 2.8 28.0 2 SSW
Max >= 90.0: 1
Max <= 32.0: 0
Min <= 32.0: 0
Min <= 0.0: 0
Max Rain: 0.02 ON 5/16/01
Days of Rain: 1 (>.01 in) 0 (>.1 in) 0 (>1 in)
Heat Base: 65.0 Cool Base: 65.0 Method: (High + Low) / 2