Despite snow in some parts of Northern Michigan at the beginning of May, the month broke records for heat.
“The start of the month realistically the first two days of the month were where a majority of the precipitation fell across the region, after that it was basically dry,” National Weather Service meteorologist in Gaylord Harold Dippman said.
Data from the May report said that Gaylord broke heat records for the Month of May on the 31st with 93 degrees.
Traverse City tied its record for May with 92 degrees.
“It wasn’t overbearingly hot for a majority of the month, but the air mass was just so dog gone dry,” Dippman said.
Dippman said there is a dry air mass over Michigan that does not look like it’s going to move any time soon.
“For now, like in the short term into mid-June it surely looks like this high pressure is going to stay in place,” Dippman said. “Rain chances are going to be very slim to none, just based on how dry this air mass is going to be that’s overhead.”
Dippman said It is too soon to say how the rest of the summer will pan out.
“Once you start getting further out into July and August, there’s a lot of question marks as to how this pattern is all going to evolve,” Dippman said.
Despite the uncertainty for future months, Dippman said March and April were typical except for a short period in April.
“The big thing is there was a period of four days in the middle of April where we had temperatures that spiked into the mid-eighties and that was very abnormal,” Dippman said. “That was record breaking in lots of places in terms of high temperatures.”
June will help indicate how the rest of the summer may go.
“There’s not enough moisture there to generate rainfall, and that’s what we’re looking into in June,” Dippman said.