Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much - Oscar Wilde
We enjoyed warm, sunny & dry weather in May 2025. There were no late frosts so a perfect month for planting out the vegetable plants albeit with some targeted irrigation during the two dry periods. This month's garden photo was taken towards the end of May as the trees are in full leaf and the roses are blooming.
Photo 1: View of the Garden (24th May 2025)
Daily garden photos for May 2025 are collated in Video 1.
Video 1: Daily Photos of the Rear Garden in May 2025
Summary weather statistics for May 2025 are listed in the table below. Particularly notable are the high average and daily maximum temperatures, the general lack of rain and high number of dry days along with plenty of sunshine.
April 2025 ended on a high temperature note and continued for a day or two into May before cooler conditions prevailed (Figure 1). After the first week daytime temperatures warmed again for a very pleasant month. Click on the figures to enlarge the images.
Figure 1: Min/Max Daily Temperatures for May 2025
Low level rainfall (showers) was confined to the end of the month apart from some moderately heavy rain (with thunderstorms) on the 11th/12th of the month (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Daily Rainfall & Sunshine Data for May 2025
Following our usual custom, we will compare how the weather for May 2025 in Hereford compared with the previous five Mays (2020 - 2025). On average, May 2025 was among the warmest of the past six years while also recording the highest daily maximum temperature over the same period (Figure 3). The 2021 - 2025 period has seen frost-free months for which we are eternally grateful.
Figure 3: May Temperature Data in Hereford from 2020 - 2025
May 2025 was the third sunniest May with the second lowest rainfall (Figure 4) in Hereford when considering the last six years (2020 - 2025). The former was a boon, the latter a pain for gardeners.
Figure 4: May Rain, Wind & Sunshine Data in Hereford from 2020 - 2025
The following three figures are taken from the UK Met Office's monthly report for May 2025. The position of Herefordshire is marked on each map. Mean temperature for Herefordshire was between 0.5 ℃ and 1.5 ℃ above the long-term average (1991 - 2020). Based on the nearby Credenhill weather station, the 1991 - 2020 mean temperature for Herefordshire in May is just over 12 ℃ compared to the 15 ℃ mean temperature recorded by my back garden Davis Weather Station. This is significantly higher than the 12.5 ℃ to 13.5 ℃ indicated in Figure 5. Some of this difference will be down to the inaccuracy/bias of the Davis Weather Station but it also suggests quite a strong Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect.
Figure 5: UK Mean Temperature Anomalies for May 2025
Figure 6 confirms the low precipitation for Hereford in May 2025 with only 20% to 75% of the expected rainfall. The average May rainfall at Credenhill is 53.4 mm so the 13.4 mm recorded in our back garden (see Table above) represents 25% of the expected May precipitation.
Figure 6: UK Rainfall (relative) for May 2025
Finally, Figure 7 shows that May 2025 sunshine hours for Herefordshire were 10% to 30% above the long-term average in agreement with my back garden results (Table and Figure 4).
Figure 7: UK Sunshine Hours (relative) for May 2025
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