World warm in May
In Philly, after warmest spring on record, It was the fourth-warmest May.
Last month was the fourth-warmest May on record in Philadelphia, and evidently it was warm all over the world.
Based on NASA satellite data, it was the fourth-warmest May worldwide in the 34-year period of record, according to John Christy at the University of Alabama, with temperatures averaging about a half-degree Fahrenheit above normal.
That warm-up likely was related to the fading of the La Nina, the abnormal cooling of sea-surface waters in the tropical Pacific.
Statistically, the fact that May finished fourth in Philadelphia is more impressive since the city's temperature records reach all the way back to 1874.
The May average of 68.2 still was shy of the champ's -- 70.8 in 1991.
In addition, 2012's was the warmest meteorological spring -- March 1-May 31 period on record in Philadelphia.
The three-month average of 58.7 topped 2010's 58.1
Those temperatures may feel like a memory today. The high, 68, was the lowest maximum since May 6.
It could well be a pitcher's night at Citizens Bank Park with a stiff north wind gusting to 18 m.p.h. blowing in from centerfield. Not an LA night.