The phrase for spring 1997: Way cool!
So cool, in fact, that Mt. Washington, N.H., had its old monthly snowfall record for May crushed by a whopping 43.6 inches, beating the old record of 52.2 inches 30 years ago. The new record is 95.8 inches.
The entire Northeast's cool weather continued through May, as the average temperature for the 12-state region was 4.4 degrees cooler than normal. For the Northeast, this was the fourth coolest May in the last 103 years, according to Keith Eggleston, a climatologist at the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell.
West Virginia and Pennsylvania enjoyed their third coolest May on record, with monthly departures of -4.8 and -4.7 degrees respectively. Vermont had the region's largest departure from the long-term average this month (-5.3 degrees), while Rhode Island reported the smallest difference from the long-term average (-2.0 degrees).
The average temperature for the spring season (March through May) was 2.6 degrees cooler than normal and the ninth coolest spring on record for the Northeast.
"May showed a pronounced lack of warm days," Eggleston said.
In Burlington, Vt., for example, there were only three days during the month where the maximum temperature was above 70 degrees (28th, 29th and 31st). The average number of such days in May is 11, and the last time there were fewer than three was in 1945. It was also the first May since 1983 when the mercury failed to reach 80 degrees at that location.
In New York City's Central Park, there was only one day this spring when the temperature reached 80 degrees (83 degrees on May 19). The last time there was only one such day in the spring was in 1928, when the surrounding area was much less urbanized.
Rainfall was generally below normal around the region this month, according to the NRCC. Delaware was the driest state, with 59 percent of its May normal. The only state reporting an above-normal statewide total was Maine, with 116 percent of the normal May accumulation.