Despite a cool and wet period of ten days, the past month was slightly warmer, and above all less rainy than normal for the season, according to data from Météo France.
Article written by
Published
Update
Reading time : 2 min.
/2023/05/31/64774a5835463_000-33gk83b.jpg)
A cold and rainy month? This is undoubtedly the impression that this month of May has left you in mainland France. Yet it averaged 0.8°C warmer than seasonal normals measured between 1991 and 2020 (see the first graph below) and there was 20% less rain, according to provisional data provided by Météo France to franceinfo, Thursday June 1. Final figures will be released on Friday.
How to explain such a discrepancy? “May 2023 has nothing to do with the previous one, which was the hottest ever recorded in France, at +2.4°C above normal”, explains to franceinfo Matthieu Sorel, climatologist at Météo France. In some cities in the south of the country, the thermometer had then approached 35°C.
>> Climate: is it hot or cold for the season? Compare today’s weather to temperature history for decades
This “feeling of gloom” provoked by the memory of May 2022 was reinforced by “the fact that we experienced a slightly cooler and gloomy period between May 10 and May 20”, continues the climatologist. The mercury then dropped to 4°C below normal for the season. A freshness accentuated by the northeast wind, which made us forget the beginning of the month, “warm, sunny and dry”, as was the end of the month on the northern half. This month of May thus remains in line with the previous months, with temperatures above normal, with the exception of April which had experienced temperatures in line with average.
With global warming, caused by our consumption of oil, coal and gas, “we are no longer used to having conditions closer to normal and we have forgotten that spring remains a transitional season, with cooler, wetter or more summery periods”observes Matthieu Sorel, before adding: “May is not necessarily a very summery month. That’s the image people have, but it’s very far from reality. We probably want to get out of winter”.
The “hot” nature of this month of May is even more obvious if we compare it to the 1971-2000 average (graph below), a period when the effects of global warming were less visible.
View comments