Scattered rains and thunderstorms are not extraordinary for the month of May, despite yesterday's lower than usual temperatures, the weather services said yesterday.

"The weather is nothing unexceptional for May," said senior meteorological officer, Loizos Stefanou.

Stefanou was referring to the spells of rain that started on Sunday, continued yesterday and is also forecasted for today. He also said the use of the term "freak weather" to describe the past few days' climate was inaccurate."May doesn't rule out rain and as a first assessment the rain we've had so far is normal. It has rained in May several times and this is nothing unusual," he said.

Temperatures were however lower than normal for the period and by as much as five degrees on Sunday.

"The temperatures are normally around 26 to 27 degrees at this time of the year so we're excepting temperatures that are one or two degrees lower than that," he said.

Nevertheless on Sunday temperatures were even lower. Nicosia recorded maximum temperatures of 23 degrees, Larnaca 21 degrees, Limassol and Paphos 22 degrees, Paralimni 19 degrees, Prodromos 17 degrees and Polis Chrysochous 22 degrees, he said.

Stefanou said that by the end of May the service would have a good idea about how good the year's rainfall had been and whether it could be said to have put an end to the period of drought that has for the past several years plagued the island. Although the hydrological year ended on September 30, the months of June, July and August were usually dry and would therefore not make much of a difference to the overall annual rainfall percentage, he said.

Source: Cyprus Mail