Whiplash: Record cold April, record hot May

Hot enough for you? The USA is sweltering through what likely will be its hottest May on record, according to a preliminary analysis of weather data.

National Weather Service meteorologist Victor Murphy said May 2018 should break the record set in May 1934 during the Dust Bowl.

The heat has been particularly noteworthy in the central U.S., including the upper Midwest and northern Plains, where temperatures have run some 5-8 degrees above average, according to weather.us meteorologist Ryan Maue.

On Monday, the temperature in Minneapolis soared to a record 100 degrees, the city’s earliest 100-degree reading on record, buckling roads, straining air conditioners and triggering air quality alerts.

Other cities seeing record-breaking heat over the past few days include Chicago, Milwaukee, Green Bay and Des Moines, Radiant Solutions reported.

In the past few days, more than 1,900 heat records have been broken or tied, weather.com said.

For folks in the Midwest, the crazy heat of May follows what had been an unusually cold April. In fact, for two states in the Upper Midwest — Iowa and Wisconsin — it was the coldest April since records began in 1895, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

Nationally, April 2018 was the USA’s coldest April in 21 years.

Record-breaking snow also accompanied the cold in many areas, wreaking havoc with baseball schedules and seriously delaying spring. The average U.S. temperature was 48.9 degrees, 2.2 degrees below average, making it the coldest since 1997, NOAA said.