Climate averages 1991–2020
Sunderland weather
in May.
A cool, moderately wet month: the 5th warmest and the 3rd driest of the year.
Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.
May is a cool month in Sunderland: daytime highs average 13.9°C and nights cool to about 7.2°C. By daytime temperature it is the 5th warmest of the 12 months.
Expect about 48 mm of rain on roughly 11 days, which makes May a moderately wet month (the 3rd driest of the 12 months). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 16 h 05 min on an average May day.
The nearest other city in this atlas is South Shields (11 km away). In May its highs average 13.7°C, about as warm as Sunderland, with 48 mm of rain.
Among the 143 cities listed in the United Kingdom, Sunderland ranks 126th of 143 for the warmest May highs and joint 7th of 143 for the driest May (rainfall, lowest first). The mean May high of those 143 cities is 15.2°C; Sunderland is 1.3°C cooler than that mean.
From May to June, average highs rise by 2.8°C to 16.6°C, and monthly rainfall rises from 48 mm to 60 mm.
The annual picture
May in context
Monthly rainfall
Average total · mmAverages from hourly ERA5 reanalysis data. Actual weather varies from year to year. How these numbers are calculated
Every month, side by side
Sunderland climate table
| Month | Average highHigh / low | Average low | Rainfall mm/month | Rain days ≥1 mm/day | Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 6.5°C2.2°C | 2.2°C | 53 | 12.2 | 7.98 h |
| February | 7.1°C2.2°C | 2.2°C | 46 | 11.0 | 9.610 h |
| March | 8.9°C2.9°C | 2.9°C | 43 | 10.6 | 11.812 h |
| April | 11.1°C4.5°C | 4.5°C | 51 | 11.0 | 14.114 h |
| May, selected | 13.9°C7.2°C | 7.2°C | 48 | 11.3 | 16.116 h |
| June | 16.6°C10.1°C | 10.1°C | 60 | 11.5 | 17.217 h |
| July | 19.0°C12.3°C | 12.3°C | 61 | 12.0 | 16.717 h |
| August | 18.7°C12.2°C | 12.2°C | 68 | 12.3 | 15.015 h |
| September | 16.4°C10.3°C | 10.3°C | 52 | 9.7 | 12.813 h |
| October | 12.9°C7.7°C | 7.7°C | 58 | 11.8 | 10.511 h |
| November | 9.2°C4.8°C | 4.8°C | 62 | 12.5 | 8.58 h |
| December | 6.7°C2.6°C | 2.6°C | 59 | 12.4 | 7.37 h |
Rainfall is the average of the 30 separate monthly totals. A rain day is a local calendar day with at least 1 mm of precipitation. Daylight is the calculated sunrise-to-sunset length, not measured sunshine.
Compare places
May in nearby cities
- South Shields in MayUnited Kingdom · 11 kmHigh 13.7°C · Low 7.5°C · 48 mm rain
- Newcastle upon Tyne in MayUnited Kingdom · 17 kmHigh 13.5°C · Low 7.0°C · 48 mm rain
- Hartlepool in MayUnited Kingdom · 27 kmHigh 13.6°C · Low 7.6°C · 46 mm rain
- Stockton-on-Tees in MayUnited Kingdom · 38 kmHigh 14.0°C · Low 7.5°C · 49 mm rain
- Middlesbrough in MayUnited Kingdom · 38 kmHigh 13.7°C · Low 7.6°C · 49 mm rain
- Darlington in MayUnited Kingdom · 44 kmHigh 14.1°C · Low 6.6°C · 51 mm rain
- Carlisle in MayUnited Kingdom · 99 kmHigh 14.2°C · Low 6.6°C · 69 mm rain
- Harrogate in MayUnited Kingdom · 102 kmHigh 14.0°C · Low 6.3°C · 54 mm rain
Read the numbers correctly
Climate, not a promise.
These patterns help compare months. They cannot tell you the weather on a specific day of your trip.
Sources, method and limitsHow these numbers are made (what the highs, lows and rain days mean, the sources and the model cell used for Sunderland) is explained once on the Sunderland year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.
Newcastle upon Tyne and South Shields lie in the same rainfall cell, so their rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.