Central Ohioans hoping for an early taste of summer may need to temper those plans, as Columbus is unlikely to see sun for nearly a week.
The region, which picked up four inches of rain in the last five days, isn’t expected to get a sunny forecast until May 29 or 30, according to National Weather Service’s Wilmington-based meteorologist James Gibson. Even so, he told The Dispatch the amount of rainfall central Ohio has seen, while heavy, is nothing out of the ordinary for the month of May.
The record for amount of rainfall between May 1 and May 24 was set at 6.89 inches in 1933, whereas the same period this year has seen 5.16 inches, as of the early afternoon of May 24, according to Gibson.
That makes this year’s May 1-24 period the 11th-rainiest in Columbus history since the National Weather Service started tracking rainfall in the 1800s, Gibson said.
Gibson added there’s a chance of an additional quarter to three-quarters of an inch of rainfall throughout the rest of May 24.
The National Weather Service’s extended forecast shows at least a 30% chance of showers Tuesday through Thursday.
What’s the forecast for Memorial Day?
Despite the region’s recent trend, Gibson said Memorial Day on May 25 should be “relatively dry.”
Memorial Day is expected to be mostly cloudy in Columbus with a high of 78 degrees in the day and a low of around 62 degrees at night, according to the National Weather Service’s forecast.
Reporter Emma Wozniak can be reached at ewozniak@dispatch.com or @emma_wozniak_ on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus could go nearly a week without the sun as showers linger
Reporting by Emma Wozniak, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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