Steinbach has just come through one of the warmest months of May on record.

David Phillips is the senior climatologist with Environment Canada. Phillips says the heat last month really came out of nowhere. He explains March was about five degrees cooler than normal and then April was 3.5 degrees below average. 

"People were saying, 'I don't care about summer, what about spring? Bring spring.'"

But then the weather changed in a big way. Phillips says May ended up being 4.2 degrees warmer than normal. And, he says the above-average temperatures were felt in the morning, at noon and during the night. 

"What a contrast to the previous month," he says. "So, I think going into it you were wishing for some warmth and boy did you get it in buckets."

Phillips points out there were four days last month when the temperature hit 30 degrees. According to Phillips, normally we might experience one of those days every two years in May. 

"It wasn't just toasty warm, it was really torrid warm, especially the end of May," he says. 

According to Phillips, last month ended up being one of the top five warmest months of May ever recorded for Steinbach. In fact, he says it is probably the second warmest May in the last 150 years, with only 1977 being warmer. 

In addition to the heat, Phillips says it has also been dry. In fact, since January, Steinbach has seen about 71 per cent of what is normal for precipitation. 

Meanwhile, Phillips is calling for a summer in southern Manitoba that is hotter than normal.