Grand Forks, N.D., set records in the low 20s last week, while San Antonio, Texas, recorded a record-high 94 degrees Saturday. Downtown Baltimore's temperature barely reached 50 degrees yesterday - more than 20 degrees below normal.
The cold air "literally wrung the moisture out of the atmosphere," said Jay Searles, a meteorologist with Penn State Weather Communications in State College, Pa. "It was really juicy, like you had a super-soaked cloth and you wrung it all out. And it all happened in one event."
Rainfall this month has totaled more than 6 inches at BWI in the wettest May here since 1989. The average rain total in Baltimore for all of May is 3.89 inches.
Friday's downpours at BWI totaled 1.85 inches, breaking the record of 1.41 inches set May 9, 1919. Another record toppled Sunday at the airport, where rainfall reached 1.49 inches. That broke the record of 1.28 inches set May 11, 1924.
The heaviest rainfall between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning was recorded in Southern Maryland. North Beach, in Calvert County, reported more than 7 inches of rain by 9 a.m. yesterday, according to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network.
Baltimore largely escaped the worst of it. Kurt L. Kocher, a spokesman for the city's Department of Public Works, reported that the Gwynns Falls went over its banks "a little bit" near the city-county line, but no serious flooding occurred.
In the Jones Falls, he said, the water rose to the I-beam that supports the road deck of the Smith Avenue bridge, "and then receded." No flooding was reported along the Jones Falls, although Kocher said there were reports of basement flooding in the city.
The storm's center was moving slowly offshore yesterday, and forecasters expected the rain to taper off, clearing the way for high pressure to move in from the northwest overnight, bringing mostly sunny skies today, with a seasonable high near 70.
Tomorrow should be a bit warmer and sunny again. But then more showers are due with the next cold front from the Great Lakes. Temperatures will remain in the 70s, but the chances for rain will persist into the weekend.
frank.roylance@baltsun.com
Sun reporters Chris Guy, Ruma Kumar, Steven Stanek and Nick Madigan and the Associated Press contributed to this article.
