Arctic April surrendered to molten May
This month set to break Dust Bowl heat record
The USA is sweltering through what will probably be its hottest May on record, according to a preliminary analysis of weather data.
National Weather Service meteorologist Victor Murphy said May should break the record set in May 1934 during the Dust Bowl.
The heat has been particularly oppressive in the central USA, including the upper Midwest and northern Plains, where temperatures have run 5 to 8 de- grees above average, according to weather.us meteorologist Ryan Maue.
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, The Weather Channel said.
For folks in the Midwest, the crazy heat of May followed an unusually cold April. 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.
The Twin Cities saw their fourthcoldest April on record. Meteorologist Peter Mullinax of Planalytics said Minneapolis’ weather whiplash from April to May was the biggest on record, a rebound of almost 30 degrees.
Nationally, it was the USA’s coldest April in 21 years.
Record-breaking snow accompanied the cold in many areas, wreaking havoc with baseball schedules and seriously delaying the onset of spring.
During April, the average U.S. temperature was 48.9 degrees, which was 2.2 degrees below average, “making it the 13th-coldest April on record and the coldest since 1997,” the NOAA said.
Final weather data for May will be out in early June.