Average Rainfall for North Carolina in May

The tables below give monthly averages for rainfall during May at cities, communities and other locations around North Carolina.

Each place has a total for the amount of precipitation it usually receives this month. There is also a count of the number of days with wet weather, when precipitation amounts to 0.01 inches (0.25 millimetres) or more.

The rainfall totals are averages based on weather data collected from 1991 to 2020 for the US National Centers for Environmental Information.

You can jump to a separate table for each region of the state: North Carolina Mountains in the west, Piedmont in the center, and North Carolina Coast to the east.

North Carolina Mountains

Average monthly precipitation in May
Days Place Inches Milli­metres
12 Asheville 3.5 88
14 Banner Elk 5.1 130
14 Boone 5.5 139
12 Cullowhee 4.3 110
15 Grandfather Mountain 6.1 154
14 Highlands 6.6 168
12 Kerr Scott Reservoir 4.7 120
11 Morganton 4.1 104
12 North Wilkesboro 4.5 114
13 Pisgah Forest 5.1 129
12 Tapoco 4.9 125
13 Waterville 4.6 116
12 Winston-Salem 3.8 96

Piedmont

May averages for total rainfall
Days Place Inches Milli­metres
7 Albemarle 3.5 89
11 Burlington 3.4 86
10 Chapel Hill 3.8 96
10 Charlotte 3.4 85
10 Concord 3.7 94
9 Durham 3.8 97
9 Gastonia 3.5 90
10 Greensboro 3.3 84
10 Henderson 3.9 99
11 Hickory 3.9 98
10 High Point 3.8 96
13 Mount Airy 4.5 115
10 Raleigh 3.4 86
11 Shelby 4.3 109

North Carolina Coast

Average amount of rain in May
Days Place Inches Milli­metres
9 Atlantic Beach 4.5 114
11 Beaufort 3.9 100
9 Belhaven 4.0 102
9 Cape Hatteras 4.4 111
9 Cedar Island 4.3 110
9 Edenton 3.7 94
11 Elizabeth City 4.1 103
9 Fayetteville 3.4 87
10 Goldsboro 3.5 89
11 Greenville 4.0 103
9 Hofmann Forest 3.9 98
8 Kinston 3.9 100
10 Lumberton 4.3 108
7 Manteo 3.5 89
8 Morehead City 4.4 112
11 New Bern 4.3 108
8 Ocracoke 3.8 97
10 Roanoke Rapids 3.4 87
10 Rocky Mount 3.3 84
8 Southport 3.4 87
10 Wilmington 4.5 115
10 Wilson 3.9 100
Reference

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Climate Normals.

North Carolina Precipitation
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