The margins couldn't have been any smaller (0.01°c and 0.1 mm), but May finished as both the driest and warmest in my records - that 'warmth' wasn't necessarily that obvious though, but the dryness was. From the 12th only one more day saw some rainfall and that was a fall of just 0.5 mm.

  After a fairly quiet start to the month which saw no rain in the first five days with day-time maxima hovering either side of average, the 6-11th became unsettled with some spells of rain, but even then it was only really the 8th that could be described as a poor day.

  High pressure then became dominant and remained in charge through to the month's end (and well beyond) with any fronts being weak and insignificant; the days fell dry and then for the final eleven days, sunny. Day-time maxima never got too warm though, mainly due to winds being from the NW or east.

  A quiet five days to start the month that were dry and with some spells of sunshine before a few days of unsettled conditions when a series of low pressure systems from off the Atlantic brought some rain. With 7.3 mm the 8th was the worst and wettest day and was about the only day of the month not to see any sunshine.

  Rain totalling 4.2 mm on the 11th was short-lived from 11h and then as for rainfall that was very much it for the rest of the month. Temperatures throughout this time were very close to average by day, the 13th managing to push on and become the first day of the year to top 20°c, but night-time minima had been well above average.

  Whilst high pressure (HP) now became dominant, a couple of chilly days followed 14-16th in a NW'ly airflow, but which avoided air frosts, although the 15-16th recorded the only ground frosts of the month.

  From the 19th it was almost a case of wall to wall sun, every day - HP was dominant, either over or near to the UK, but in spite of that sunshine, day-time maxima remained on the pleasant side. They were above average, but not excessively so as winds tended to come from either the NW or east.

  MSLP of 1023.7 Mb was +8.3 MB above average for the month and overall a mean minimum of 6.23°c and a mean maximum of 17.40°c saw the temperature 1.48°c above the fourteen year average for this site.

  It was the warmest May yet recorded at this site, but only just, beating 2008 by just 0.01°c! - the highest maximum temperature recorded during the month being 21.3°c (26th), the lowest minimum 1.5°c (15th).

  Rainfall of 14.7 mm (Maulds Meaburn North 12.4 mm -- Castlehowe Scar 16.5 mm) was 23.4% of average for 2008-22, making it the driest May yet recorded at this site (but only just, beating 2010 by just 0.1 mm!).

  During the month the following 'days of' were recorded: nothing at all -- the wind speed averaged 5.00 mph, with a maximum gust of 33 mph (4th).

  We had 0 Air Frosts in the month (year 32)          --          Grass Frosts totalled 2 (year 61).

  The 1 foot soil temp ranged from a low of 11.0°c on the 1st        to      a high of 15.5°c on the 31st     --      with a monthly mean of 13.4°c

  The 1 meter soil temp ranged from a low of 9.2°c on the 1st      to      a high of 12.9°c on the 31st     --     with a monthly mean of 11.1°c

   This makes the Jan' to May period of 2023 0.82°c warmer than the average for 2009-22 and with 89.0% of average rainfall for 2008-22

  At the Met' Office site at Shap a mean minimum of 5.0°c and a mean maximum of 16.5°c saw the monthly mean temperature 1.35°c above average. It was the warmest May since 2018.

  Rainfall of 18.2 mm represents 18.5% of its average. It was the driest May since 1991 and in a record that commenced in 1989, one has been drier and 33 have been wetter.

  Cumbria Rainfall - .

  Across the board May was a dry month, but in some parts of the county it bordered on being exceptionally dry and which perversely was in parts of the county that would ordinarily be described as 'wet'.

  The central portion of the county and to the south, especially within the LDNP, was very dry, but which became close to exceptionally dry in the central eastern parts of the county.

  This saw Shap record just 18.2 mm of rain (18.5%) and Maulds Meaburn North 12.4 mm, yet even though the east was widely the driest part of the county, pockets of 'dryness' were found elsewhere and the lowest total fall of 10.2 mm was found out at Egremont (Ivy Hill)!

  After a quiet start to the month, the only rain of the month fell during the 4-11th and in spite of the dryness of the month, a few sites still managed to notch up one day with a fall over 1" (25.4 mm) - the largest 24Hr fall being the 41.0 mm at Ennerdale Black Sail on the 8th (which was uniformly the month's wettest day).

  Ennerdale Black Sail with a total of 91.0 mm (42.5%) would also have the month's highest total fall.

  The highest percentage falls were to be found in the north of the county and here a number of sites did venture above 50% of the LTA, the 82.9% at Carlisle being the highest.

  And from the 12th it fell dry. Many locations did pick up a shower overnight into the 19th but this was significant. Both Brotherswater and Seascale recorded no rain after the 11th.

  And the paradox of by the month's end we were in need of some rain, especially for gardens and agriculture, was that overall the spring as finished wetter than average!

  Figures from the Environment Agency's rainfall sites were, (figure in brackets being the monthly average for 1991-2020)   'Data kindly provided by the Hydrometry and Telemetry team of the Environment Agency (Penrith)':

  At Appleby in Westmorland rainfall of 24.3 mm represents 43.1% of its average (1857-2022) and made it the driest since 2018 - in a record that commenced in 1857, 21 have been drier, 144 have been wetter and one was exactly the same.

  Kirkby Thore 22.2 mm -- (46.1 mm)

  Haresceugh Castle (Kirkoswald) 44.17 mm -- (61.6 mm)

  Brothers Water 32.3 mm -- (139.2 mm)

  Orton (Shallowford) ??? mm -- (86.6 mm [average for 1967-2022]) - making it the dri/wettest since ??? and since 1967 when the record commenced, ?? have been drier and ?? have been wetter.

  Seathwaite Farm (Borrowdale) 50.6 mm -- (174 mm [average for 1845-2022]) - making it the driest since 2008 and since 1845 when the record commenced, 17 have been drier and 161 have been wetter.