News Photo by Julie Goldberg Siblings Breese and Brinley Paulsen play on the merry-go-round at the Kiwanis Club Kiddie Park in Alpena on Monday.

ALPENA — The Alpena area saw colder-than-average temperatures but more precipitation than usual during the month of May.

The average temperature for the month was 49.5 degrees, 3 degrees below the average temperature of 52.5 degrees, according to end-of-the-month data from the National Weather Service office in Gaylord.

A high of 83 degrees was recorded on May 25 and a low of 27 degrees was recorded on May 8.

Meteorologist Sabrina Jauernic said the cooler temperatures were evident most in the daily average high temperature, which was 59.8 degrees, 4.7 degrees below the typical daily average temperature of 64.5 degrees.

The average daily low of 39.2 degrees was also slightly below the typical average daily low of 40.5 degrees.

Jauernic also said the region saw more rain than usual, with rain recorded on 18 out of 31 days last month. The region saw 1.25 inches of precipitation on May 9, which Jauernic said was “a pretty decent soaking of rain.”

Overall, an average of 5.04 inches of rain fell on the Alpena area last month, which is 2.37 inches more rain than usual.

“It was kind of cool and damp across the whole area,” Jauernic said. “Even though Alpena was slightly below normal, it didn’t really get close to any records being tied or broken.”

Jauernic said a lot of the weather was caused by the cold northerly or northwesterly flow of the jet stream, which is the main thing that steers the weather system toward or away from the area. She said there were also big storm systems that went through the south, causing regions on north side of those storms, such as Alpena, to be cold and rainy.

“The growing season was also delayed by almost three weeks due to the colder than average temperatures,” she said of the plants and vegetation in the region.

The month of June has started out a little cooler than average, but Jauernic expects temperatures to warm up this week. She said the temperature in Alpena is expected to be in the low 70s today, and that it will warm up as the week progresses.

“For the rest of the month, there’s probably about equal chances that we’re above versus below normal, so we might be around normal once the whole month is averaged out,” she said, adding she expects the month to be a little drier than average.

Crystal Nelson can be reached at 989-358-5687 or cnelson@thealpenanews.com.