As spring turns to summer, all in Jersey can be pleased that water supplies are in good shape. Also, while it took some time to become established, by late May, warmer temperatures brought out summer wardrobes. Spring (March–May) conditions will be covered later in this report, but first a look at May. As the title of the monthly portion of this narrative suggests, May 2024 never established a consistent atmospheric pattern. There were plenty of episodes where light to moderate showers dotted the state, but never a broad soaker.

Overview

You would never have guessed it by looking at most days, with some wet, some dry, some warm, some cold, but put it all together and a rather normal April temperature- and precipitation-wise emerged from quite a variety of days and weeks. This is often the case during a transitional month (mid-fall or mid-spring), but this month took it to a bit of an extreme. Toss in a partial solar eclipse and an earthquake and it was quite the month for all who enjoy observing our fascinating world and solar system.

So much for March flipping from lion to lamb or vice versa. March 2024 was often a lion throughout, with frequent roaring winds and multiple rain events producing a near-record monthly precipitation total and occasional flooding. The first half of the month ran at a record-warm pace, the monthly average later to be tempered by a second half that was cooler than the first. Still, the month emerged as the 9th mildest on record. Befitting the overall mild conditions, snowfall was scarce to non-existent.

When the headline for this monthly report alludes to hazy May skies that were frequently overhead, you know it was a quiet period weather-wise across the Garden State. Such was the case during the middle two weeks of May and at month’s end, with smoke from wildfires in western Canada frequently passing well overhead, followed by smoke from fires in Nova Scotia and a few in NJ. Otherwise, May temperatures were cooler than normal, and rainfall sparse.

What can you say about a month that began with a swarm of tornadoes, finished with flooding rain, and in between, featured record heat, wildfires, and increasing drought concerns? Best to say that it was an odd one! Fitting this theme, the statewide average temperature of 55.4° was 3.9° above the 1991–2020 normal. This ranks as the third warmest April on record (since 1895) only behind 2017 and 2010 for top honors (Table 1). April was the fifth month of the past ten ranking in the top 10, joining July (#7), August (#1), January (#1), and February (#5; Figure 1).