Weather Turning Point: When Cold May Ends and Climate Summer Begins

After a warm start to the weekend, the weather in Moscow and the Moscow region worsened. Already on Sunday, the sky was covered with clouds, a strong wind blew, and there were showers. On the night of May 19, rain was observed in some places. Short-term precipitation will be observed all Monday, and today the monthly norm will be fulfilled. This was reported by the chief specialist of the Meteonovosti news agency, Tatyana Pozdnyakova .

The weather forecaster specified that the cold air in the rear of the next cyclone is already gradually conquering the capital region. The daytime temperature will be about +15 degrees, which is almost two degrees below the climatic norm.

Pozdnyakova noted that this week Muscovites will experience a wave of May coolness, and the month itself turned out to be cold, with a negative anomaly in average temperature.

“May 2025 will be the coldest in the current century,” she concluded.

Leading specialist of the Phobos weather center Evgeny Tishkovets warned residents of the capital region about the drop in atmospheric pressure. According to the forecast , barometers will show 738 mm Hg.

On Tuesday night, +6… +11 degrees is expected, during the day — +11… +16 °C. Tishkovets emphasized that this will be the coldest day of the week. On Wednesday night, the thermometer will show up to +2… +7, during the day — up to +14… +19. Due to another cyclone, rain will resume.

The situation will improve only on Thursday, when the ridge of an anticyclone will look into the capital region. The sky will clear up, the sun will come out. It will still be cool at night — +1… +6, but during the day the thermometers will show +16… +21 degrees.

According to Tishkovets' forecast, Friday will be the warmest day of the week: at dusk - +7… +12 °C, during the day already +19… +24. Scientific Director of the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia Roman Vilfand in a conversation with TASS suggested that the daytime temperature will rise even higher due to the southern wind - to +26. He noted that these are already June figures.

The weekend will be accompanied by rain in warm weather. On Saturday afternoon, up to +22, on Sunday - up to +21.

Meteorological summer in Central Russia begins when the average daily temperature steadily exceeds +15 degrees. In Moscow, it usually begins on May 26. This year, the climatic summer will be a little delayed and will begin on May 27, but the calendar one will begin with heat. This is what the forecast for the European territory of Russia looks like on May 31 — on the last day of the month, +30 degrees is expected in the capital.

The head of the Meteo forecasting center, Alexander Shuvalov, recalled that a similar situation was observed last year, when after the snowfalls of May 8–9, the thermometer readings in Moscow rose above +30 degrees by the 31st.

"Already in the last days of May, a temperature increase to +26... 29 degrees is expected (with a probability of 75-80%). Well, and from there it's just a stone's throw to +30 degrees," the weather forecaster explained .

Despite the sharp warming, the expert believes that one should not expect the swimming season to start at the beginning of June.

A cyclone is approaching St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region from the north, bringing cold weather and wet snow. Forecaster Alexander Kolesov hastened to reassure: the snow will not reach the Northern capital and will fall from the sky in the central regions of Karelia and Finland.

In his forecast , he noted that the work week will begin with a slight cold snap. On Monday, the city is expected to have +16… +18 degrees, on Tuesday — up to +18… +20, on Wednesday — up to +13… +14. Kolesov spoke about sunny weather with possible light rains on Tuesday evening, but no serious precipitation is expected at the beginning of the week.

Warming will come to the Northern capital from Thursday - warmth will be brought by western and southern cyclones. Thermometers will reach +20, but along with the rise in temperature, rain will come.

While residents of Central Russia were enjoying the warmth of May over the weekend, Siberia became the real record-breaker. In several settlements of the Altai Territory, the air temperature approached +40 °C — in the village of Uglovskoye on Saturday, the thermometer showed +39.3 degrees.

“Russia was only 0.4 degrees Celsius short of the national record for May heat; let me remind you that it was set in May 2021 in Khasavyurt, Dagestan, and is +39.7,” said Mikhail Leus, a leading specialist at the Phobos weather center.

The temperature did break the May record, but only for the Asian part of Russia. The previous maximum of +38 °C was set in 1973 in the city of Borzya in the Zabaikalsky Krai.

As Vilfand reported, the southern regions of Western Siberia will face a significant cold snap at the beginning of this week, and thermometers will show 8-10 degrees less than a week ago. The heat will begin to recover on Thursday, and by the end of the week the temperature will exceed +30 degrees.

This week, warming will come to the Urals. In the regions of the Ural Federal District (UFD), rain is also expected , in places with thunderstorms, gusty winds.

In the Chelyabinsk region, night temperatures will be +5… +10 degrees, daytime temperatures will be +16… +24. Cloudy weather with clear spells will prevail, and wind gusts will reach 14 m/s. In the Sverdlovsk region, +13 is predicted at night, up to +22 during the day, in the Kurgan region - +9 at night, +24 during the day. In the Tyumen region, there will be light rain with thunderstorms, wind gusts will reach 17 m/s: +14 at night, +24 during the day. In Yugra, it will be about +6 degrees at night, +20 during the day. In Yamal, it will be windy - up to 18 m/s. According to the forecast, light rain is expected, sleet is possible. At night - around zero, during the day - +5 degrees, in places up to +10.

An anticyclonic weather regime will be observed in the south of the European part of Russia. By the end of the week, Vilfand predicts +31 °C in the steppe regions of Crimea and +26… +27 degrees on the coast. Pozdnyakova warned of light rain on Tuesday, which will slow down the warming. Comfortable temperatures will be observed along the entire Russian Black Sea coast: in the Krasnodar Territory — up to +27… +29 degrees.

Forecaster Tishkovets told the magazine "Pole.RF" about the passage of a cold front in the next couple of days over the southern regions, the Caucasus and the Black Earth Region. The process will be accompanied by showers and mosaic thunderstorms. In some places, up to 24 mm of precipitation will fall, and the wind will accelerate to 18 m/s. At the same time, the Minister of Agriculture of the Stavropol Territory Sergey Izmalkov warned of heavy rains, showers with thunderstorms and hail, which will be observed on May 20. Wind gusts of up to 25 m/s are expected , which can lead to an emergency.

The second half of the week will be sunny, dry and hot.

“From the middle of the week, heat and dryness will set in there,” Tishkovets reported, describing the weather in Kuban and Stavropol, Rostov, Voronezh, Kursk, Belgorod, Lipetsk and Tambov regions.

In a conversation with RIA Novosti, Vilfand called the weather in Russia this week quite calm. Forecasters' forecasts indicate a turnaround in the weather by summer, but the onset of warm weather is still to come.