We have said it several times and we repeat it again: when we talk about meteorology and climatology, the last word belongs to the data, who are always right and allow us to sweep away doubts and disputes. Was it a rainy May? Yes, without any doubt: i 220 millimeters fell into the rain gauge of the Pastori institute they are a value well above the average, so much so that we can say we have experienced the fifth wettest month of May in the entire Brescia historical series.
Was it also a cold month, as many say? No, far from it. To demonstrate this we will take into consideration the data from the Ghedi observatory (but the situation is similar in the city too). The average monthly temperature was +17.9°C. The most recent historical average (calculated on the basis of measurements carried out from 1991 to 2020) is +18.2°C. The gap, equal to -0.3°C, is within normality (a month that enters the archive with a deviation from the average between -0.5°C and +0.5°C is considered thermally normal). So, as far as temperatures go, it was a normal month. If, however, we take into consideration the thirty years from 1961 to 1990, we discover that at the time the average in May was +16.6°C. We are well beyond that value: the difference is +1.3°C.
The conclusion is simple: our climate, in the space of a few decades, has changed radicallyso much so that the month of May seemed cold to us but in reality, on balance, it turned out to be normal, or even warm, when compared with older averages.
The weather quiz
Now let’s reveal the solution of the last one meteoquiz: at dawn on 31 May 2006 the meteorological station of the Pastori institute detected a minimum of +4.8°C. Do you know what the cold record for the month of June is? We’ll tell you the date: June 3, 1953. Now try to guess what incredible temperature was recorded in Brescia on that occasion.
