Climate averages 1991–2020

Thornton weather
in May.

A mild, moderately wet month: the 5th warmest and the wettest of the year.

Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.

Average high 19.6°C Daytime mean, May
Average low 5.3°C Night-time mean, May
Rainfall 82 mm 11 days with ≥1 mm
Daylight 14 h Sunrise to sunset, per day
Every month in Thornton · average highYear overview

May is a mild month in Thornton: daytime highs average 19.6°C and nights cool to about 5.3°C. By daytime temperature it is the 5th warmest of the 12 months.

Expect about 82 mm of rain on roughly 11 days, which makes May a moderately wet month (the wettest month of the year). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 14 h 21 min on an average May day.

The nearest other city in this atlas is Westminster (Colorado), United States (7 km away). In May its highs average 19.6°C, about as warm as Thornton, with 82 mm of rain.

Among the 498 cities listed in the United States, Thornton ranks joint 406th of 498 for the warmest May highs and joint 228th of 498 for the driest May (rainfall, lowest first). The mean May high of those 498 cities is 23.8°C; Thornton is 4.2°C cooler than that mean.

From May to June, average highs rise by 6.3°C to 25.9°C, and monthly rainfall falls from 82 mm to 52 mm.

The annual picture

May in context

30-year average
Average highAverage low°C
Average daily high and low temperatures by month The same values are available in the monthly table below. Lines show mean daily maxima and minima, not a forecast interval. -15-10-505101520253035 JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Monthly rainfall

Average total · mm
Average monthly rainfall totalsEach bar is a mean monthly total over 1991–2020. Full numbers are in the table. JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 1000

Averages from hourly ERA5 reanalysis data. Actual weather varies from year to year. How these numbers are calculated

Every month, side by side

Thornton climate table

1991–2020
Monthly climate averages for Thornton, 1991–2020
MonthAverage highHigh / lowAverage lowRainfall mm/monthRain days ≥1 mm/dayDaylight hours/dayDay­light h/day
January 4.3°C-9.7°C-9.7°C225.29.710 h
February 5.7°C-8.7°C-8.7°C235.910.711 h
March 10.7°C-4.9°C-4.9°C477.611.912 h
April 14.4°C-0.4°C-0.4°C709.913.213 h
May, selected 19.6°C5.3°C5.3°C8211.014.414 h
June 25.9°C10.8°C10.8°C528.314.915 h
July 29.2°C14.5°C14.5°C417.214.715 h
August 28.0°C13.8°C13.8°C396.413.714 h
September 24.0°C9.4°C9.4°C365.812.512 h
October 16.6°C2.3°C2.3°C406.111.211 h
November 9.4°C-4.9°C-4.9°C305.910.010 h
December 4.0°C-9.7°C-9.7°C214.99.49 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

Distance from Thornton

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 limits

How these numbers are made (what the highs, lows and rain days mean, the sources and the model cell used for Thornton) is explained once on the Thornton year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.

Denver, Lakewood and Westminster (Colorado), United States lie in the same rainfall cell, so their rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.