May Weather in Prudhoe Bay United States

Daily high temperatures increase by 17°F, from 20°F to 37°F, rarely falling below 8°F or exceeding 47°F.

Daily low temperatures increase by 20°F, from 8°F to 28°F, rarely falling below -5°F or exceeding 34°F.

For reference, on July 27, the hottest day of the year, temperatures in Prudhoe Bay typically range from 41°F to 54°F, while on February 9, the coldest day of the year, they range from -21°F to -9°F.

The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average temperatures for the quarter of the year centered on May. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day.

Tosontsengel, Mongolia (3,578 miles away) and McMurdo Station, Antarctica (10,406 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to Prudhoe Bay (view comparison).

© OpenStreetMap contributors

Compare Prudhoe Bay to another city:

CompareMap

The month of May in Prudhoe Bay experiences decreasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy decreasing from 77% to 69%.

The clearest day of the month is May 31, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 31% of the time.

For reference, on January 21, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 90%, while on June 26, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 35%.

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. In Prudhoe Bay, the chance of a wet day over the course of May is rapidly increasing, starting the month at 4% and ending it at 10%.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 22% on August 16, and its lowest chance is 2% on March 31.

Over the course of May in Prudhoe Bay, the chance of a day with only rain increases from 0% to 5%, the chance of a day with mixed snow and rain increases from 0% to 2%, and the chance of a day with only snow remains an essentially constant 3% throughout.

Rainfall

To show variation within the month and not just the monthly total, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day rainfall during May in Prudhoe Bay is gradually increasing, starting the month at 0.0 inches, when it rarely exceeds 0.1 inches, and ending the month at 0.4 inches, when it rarely exceeds 0.9 inches.

Snowfall

As with rainfall, we consider the snowfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day snowfall during May in Prudhoe Bay is essentially constant, remaining about 1.4 inches throughout, and rarely exceeding 4.6 inches or falling below -0.0 inches.

The highest average 31-day accumulation is 1.6 inches on May 20.

Due to its extreme latitude, Prudhoe Bay experiences polar day (also known as the midnight Sun) during the summer and polar night during the winter. These are periods of time in which the sun is continuously above or below the horizon for more than one day. The precise start and end dates of polar day and night vary from year to year and depend on the precise location and elevation of the observer, and the local topography.

In the summer in Prudhoe Bay during 2024, the Sun is continuously above the horizon for 2.4 months, rising at 2:13 AM on May 14, and not setting again until 1:38 AM on July 28. As such, polar day begins in May and lasts beyond the end of the month.

The shortest day of the month is May 1, with 19 hours, 16 minutes of daylight.

The latest sunrise of the month in Prudhoe Bay is 4:14 AM on May 1 and the earliest sunrise is 2 hours, 1 minute earlier at 2:13 AM on May 14.

The earliest sunset is 11:30 PM on May 1 and the latest sunset is 1 hour, 54 minutes later at 1:24 AM on May 13.

Daylight saving time is observed in Prudhoe Bay during 2024, but it neither starts nor ends during May, so the entire month is in standard time.

The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation.

The figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for May 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon.

We base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night.

The chance that a given day will be muggy in Prudhoe Bay is essentially constant during May, remaining around 0% throughout.

This section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages.

The average hourly wind speed in Prudhoe Bay is gradually decreasing during May, decreasing from 11.3 miles per hour to 10.7 miles per hour over the course of the month.

For reference, on January 12, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 12.9 miles per hour, while on July 28, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 9.3 miles per hour.

The hourly average wind direction in Prudhoe Bay throughout May is predominantly from the east, with a peak proportion of 62% on May 31.

Prudhoe Bay is located near a large body of water (e.g., ocean, sea, or large lake). This section reports on the wide-area average surface temperature of that water.

The average surface water temperature in Prudhoe Bay is essentially constant during May, remaining around 29°F throughout.

Definitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere).

The growing season in Prudhoe Bay typically lasts for 1.7 months (51 days), from around June 27 to around August 17, rarely starting before June 6, or ending after September 7.

The month of May in Prudhoe Bay is very likely fully outside of the growing season, with the chance that a given day is in the growing season gradually increasing from 0% to 4% over the course of the month.

Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F.

The average accumulated growing degree days in Prudhoe Bay are essentially constant during May, remaining around 0°F throughout.

This section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation.

The average daily incident shortwave solar energy in Prudhoe Bay is increasing during May, rising by 1.2 kWh, from 4.5 kWh to 5.7 kWh, over the course of the month.