Weather in Malaga – May 2018

The average maximum temperature during May 2018 in Malaga was 23.6 Celsius (75F), and that was 0.3 Celsius (<1F) below normal for the time of year. The average minimum temperature was 15.1 Celsius (59F), and that was 1.1 Celsius (2F) below normal for May.

The highest temperature recorded during the month was  28.8 Celsius (84F) on the 9th, but there were only 4 other days when the temperature rose above 25 Celsius (77F). Maximum values were 27.0 Celsius (81F), 26.4 Celsius (80F), 27.7 Celsius (82F), and 28.0 Celsius (82F), on the 10th, 12th, 27th and 28th respectively. On all other days, bar 1, the temperature rose to between 21 and 25 Celsius (70-77F). The exception was the first day of the month when the maximum temperature was only 19.3 Celsius (67F).

There were no particularly warm nights during May, but  minimum temperatures were above 17 Celsius (63F) on  5 nights, including lows of 17.9 Celsius (64F) on the 9th and 18.2 Celsius (65F) on the 27th. There were many cool nights during May, but of the 13 nights with minima below 15 Celsius (59F), only 4 occurred after mid month. The coolest nights were during the first week and around mid month. There were 5 occasions when the temperature fell below 13 Celsius (55F). The first 2 nights of the month had lows of 12.2 Celsius (54F) and 10.6 Celsius (51F) respectively, with 3 consecutive nights, beginning on the 14th, also having minimum temperatures below 13 Celsius (55F).

The sea temperature, around 16 Celsius (61F) at the beginning of the month, rose slowly to 18 or 19 Celsius (64-66F), but steadily fell to 16 or 17 Celsius (61-63F) during the last week of May. Interestingly, the unusually warm weather in Denmark, has led to higher sea temperatures close to Copenhagen at the end of May than those recorded around the western Mediterranean.

There were 6.2 millimetres (0.24 ins.) of rain during May, and that was less than 30% of the average. Rain fell on 5 days, and that was 1 above the monthly average. Showers in the afternoon made the first day of the month the wettest, but only 2.5 millimetres (0.1 in.) of rain fell. Evening showers were responsible for another 2.3 millimetres (0.1 in.) on the 8th, before a lengthy spell of dry weather occurred. This ended on the 21st when a light afternoon shower gave 0.3 millimetres (0.01 ins.) of rain. The 23rd and 24th each had a few drops of rain, but not enough to measure, and the showery rain in the early hours of the 25th only totalled 0.8 millimetres (0.03 ins.). The last rain of the month was once again caused by an afternoon shower, but with only 0.3 millimetres (0.01 ins.)  recorded.

Thunder

There were 3 days with thunderstorms in west Malaga during May, but none of them were very significant in this area. The first one occurred during the  mid afternoon showers on the 1st, with a short-lived thunderstorm on the evening of the 8th. Distant thunder  was heard on the afternoon of the 21st, but no precipitation was associated with the storm in this part of west Malaga.

Northwesterly winds dominated on 23 days during May, but with sea breezes from either the southeast or southwest occurring on most afternoons. Generally , it was quite breezy, especially during the afternoons when southwesterlies blew along the beach. As mentioned in previous articles, the site is sheltered from southwesterly gusts, but northwesterly gusts exceeded 20 knots (23 mph) on 3 occasions, with the highest gust of 24 knots (28 mph) recorded on the 12th.

There was no fog observed in  west Malaga during May.

Reporting Station	Highest Temp	Lowest Temp	Rain Total (mm)	Wettest	Rain days
Malaga Airport	28.7	9.6	15	10	6
Granada Airport	29.3	0.9	39	12	10
Almeria	32.1	12.9	1	1	2
Seville	30.2	8.8	14	12	5
Cordoba	31.1	7.6	27	25	4
Jerez de la Frontera	29.8	7.0	3	3	2
Murcia	31.2	12.0	17	9	4

Climatology for May

Reporting Station	Extreme High Temp	Extreme Low Temp	Average Rain (mm)	Extreme Wettest day (mm)	Average Rain days
Malaga Airport	35.0	5.0	25	44	3
Granada Airport	38.4	-0.2	28	57	4
Almeria	34.8	8.4	14	44	2
Seville	39.1	3.8	34	45	4
Cordoba	40.1	2.4	34	44	5
Jerez de la Frontera	38.2	5.0	37	74	4
Murcia	38.5	5.0	32	35	4