Sheldon, Iowa — If it seemed to you like we had a wet May, you’re not wrong. Farmers are still dealing with the fact that frequent rainfall kept them from planting their crops on schedule.
According to the official precip totals, Sheldon had nearly twice the normal precip for the month of May. Normal would be 3.37 inches. We had 6.21 inches. That’s 2.84 inches more than normal. At the end of May we had received 14.65 inches for the year. Normal is 9.33, so we were 5.32 inches above normal on the year.
May of 2015 was just a little wetter than normal, with 4.38 inches. That’s 1.01 inches more than normal.
Back in 2014 we had a dry May with only 1.35 inches in the month. But that year we had a very wet June, with 15.19 inches falling in June. Four and a half inches of that fell in a two-day period. Normal for the whole month of June is only 4.26 inches.
As far as temperature, average normal high in Sheldon for May is 72 and average normal low for the month is 47. We were just a little cooler with an average high for the month at 70, and a low of 46. Last year it was cooler than this year with an average May high of 68 and a low of 47.
Only time will tell whether we’ll end up averaging out to normal or if the wet trend will continue, but the six-to-ten-day outlook indicates below-normal precipitation and above-normal temperatures.
