First Alert Weather: Warmer second half of May

With the COVID-19 Pandemic, time can get sort of lost. You add in the weather, which has been more winter-like than spring, and it gets even harder. Just under two weeks form the Memorial Day holiday weekend now and it looks like we will start to see a major pattern shift for much of Wisconsin.

After a beautiful first weekend of May, it's been anything but since. As of Tuesday, Madison has had nine at or below normal days in a row. Many of those days not just below normal, but 10-20 degrees below normal. While it won't happen overnight, it does look like the second half of the month will be much warmer.

A look at the 6-10 and 8-14 day temperature outlook, from the Climate Prediction Center, show high chances of above normal temperatures for much of the eastern half of the country. Meanwhile below normal temperatures likely for the western half of the country. This is a complete flip flop of what the pattern has been over the last couple of weeks.

This means more days than not through the end of the month will feature above normal temperatures. High temperatures mainly into the 70s can be expected with a few 80s sprinkled in as well. Madison, along with many other areas, has yet to hit the 80 degree mark for the year.

The downfall with this warmer pattern is the return of storm chances. Warmer temperatures typically mean more moisture and that brings active weather. While it's been a quite year for severe weather locally, that could change too. Increased chances of severe weather will return through the end of the month and heading into June.

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