(Radio Iowa/KJAN) – State climatologist Justin Glisan says the numbers show the state May temperature average was slightly warmer than normal. “We look at the average for all our weather stations we are about one and a half degrees above average at 61 degrees,” he says. Glisan says there were some 80 and 90-degree days in the month that brought the average up. He says the warm days helped make it an active month for severe weather.

“We actually had a derecho clip the northwestern part of the state, also forming what we call a haboob — or a large scale dust storm that we don’t typically get in the midwest,” he says. Glisan says those storms brought rain with them and May ended up wetter than May of last year. “But we were still drier than average. We were about …. one-point-six-four inches below average,” Glisan says. “The driest conditions in the southeastern part of the state.”

Glisan says the end of May marks the start of the climatological summer season that will run through August 31st.