• After a much below normal temperature start to May, much above normal temperatures at the end of the month brought the monthly average back to near or slightly below normal.  In fact, the average temperatures across the area were almost 10 degrees below normal by the middle of May.  Highs in the 80s and lower 90s at the end of the month helped to bring the monthly average back up.   Several frost advisories and freeze warnings were issued in the middle of May as temperatures fell into the mid to upper 20s.  Record lows were set at Aberdeen, Sisseton, and Pierre.  Aberdeen set record lows two days in row with 23 degrees on the 15th and 16th.  On the 16th, the previous record low at Aberdeen dated back to 1929.  Pierre set a record low of 25 degrees on the 15th while Sisseton set a record low of 28 degrees on the 16th.
• Precipitation for the month was drier than normal for a few locations and wetter than normal for other locations.  The monthly rainfall amounts across the region ranged from 1.63 inches at Wheaton to 4.40 inches at Pierre. For Pierre, this was 1.25 inches above normal.  Pierre also set a daily precipitation record of 1.53 inches on May 30th.  There were also a few locations that received trace amounts of snowfall early in the month. Torrential rains and flash flooding towards the end of the month occurred in Hyde, Hand, and Edmunds County where 3 to 6.50 inches of rain fell.   On May 30th, a tornado touched down for a short time in Hand county northwest of Ree Heights with no damage occurring.