Climate summaries

Overview of weather across the UK for previous months, seasons and years

Those interested in climate change and predictions of future climates should also visit the Climate Change pages.

UK last month

May 2023

May began fine, but soon became much more unsettled, with some wet weather during the period from the 4th to the 11th. After that, it was much more settled for the remainder of the month, and often rather warm and sunny by day.

Temperatures were somewhat above average on most days during the month, though never by a large margin, so it wasn’t until near the end of the month that anywhere in the UK approached 25 °C, while clear skies allowed temperatures to fall below average by night during the latter part of the month. The provisional UK mean temperature for May was 11.6 °C, which is 1.0 °C above average, making it the seventh warmest May in a series from 1884. Rainfall was above average in some southern and eastern counties, but well below normal in many other areas, and for the UK overall rainfall was 55% of average. Sunshine was above normal in many southern areas, but eastern and northern fringes were slightly duller than average, giving 108% of average for the UK overall.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows: A maximum temperature of 25.1 °C was recorded at Porthmadog (Gwynedd) on the 30th. A minimum temperature of -2.2 °C was recorded at Loch Glascarnoch (Ross & Cromarty) on the 2nd. In the 24 hours ending at 0900 UTC on the 10th, 43.6 mm of rain fell at Harestock Sewage Works (Hampshire). A wind gust of 54 knots (62 mph) was recorded at Warcop Range (Cumbria) on the 4th.

Regional values for May 2023