May 2024: A warmer than average month globally and across UK/IE

May was warmer than average not just across the UK and Ireland, but globally.

It may have felt like a dull and wet month across the UK and Ireland, and you wouldn't be wrong to think that.

Sunshine was below average, coming in at just 83% of the monthly norm, alongside above-average rainfall, particularly during the second half of the month.

However it was the warmest May on record, both across the UK and Ireland, and globally. A maximum temperature of 27.5°C was also recorded at Chertsey Abbey Mead in Surrey on the 12th of the month.

The average temperature across the UK specifically came in at 13.1°C, beating the previous record from 2008 of 12.1°C, dating back to 1884.

Although it didn't feel particularly warm by day under the lack of sunshine, the cloud blanketing the UK and Ireland by night meant that the night-times were also warmer than average, rather than radiation escaping under clear skies.

Globally, average temperatures for the month also came in at 0.65°C above the 1991-2020 average. May 2024 was also the 12th consecutive month that was the warmest on record.

Over the past 12 months from June 2023 to May 2024 the global average temperature is the highest on record, at 0.75°C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.63°C above the pre-industrial average.

This short-term breach isn't the same as global warming sustaining the 1.5°C threshold of warming just yet however.