Ne'er Cast A Clout Till May Be Out

The old English saying, which for the benefit of my foreign readers means "keep your coat on until you are sure summer is here." Or something like that, in short May can and often does spring (nice pun) a surprise or two.

Certainly there was a marked difference in temperatures here between dog walking duties on Saturday morning and Monday morning.

A quick flick through Metcheck this morning shows my local forecast for this week cooling right down, with next Monday (10th) showing a daytime high of just 6C, with a lunchtime "feels like" that day of -5C!

Similarly in the US we have a forecast high for Chicago today of 77C, according to Accuweather, yet a big cool down over there pegs this Saturday's high at just 52C.

"A review of Chicago weather records reveals it's not unprecedented that May's pattern would take a turn in the wake of a warm, dry spring open. Seven of 8 years which have followed mild spring opens - 88 percent of them - have gone on to experience below normal overall May temperatures," says WGN's website.

QT Weather say that "by Thursday, snow will be falling from Saskatchewan to W Nebraska and eastward to Minnesota." By Saturday they see temperatures falling to "33F as far south as Liberal, KS near the OK border…not quite cold enough for HRW damage but some light damage may be seen in the normally colder locations."

There's plenty of time between now and Saturday for things to take a turn for the worst too.