Weather in Park City in May

A good month. May is a solid month to be in Park City. Highs average 16.1 °C, lows 2 °C, and rain falls on 10 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

May ranks 5 of 12 in Park City: past the worst of the year but short of June, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 10 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 16.1 °C days and 2 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 10 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 30.2 °C and the coldest night fell to -12 °C.

May is moderately variable: 13 mm in the driest year against 153 mm in the wettest, around an average of 49 mm. Roughly two Mays in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 1.3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 59%.

How May sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 6.2 °C warmer than April, and June adds another 7 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in May

14.4 hours of daylight, gaining 1 hours across the month. That is between Park City's extremes of 15.1 and 9.3 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 39.6 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage. At 2141 m, altitude is doing as much work here as latitude: thinner air means fierce sun by day and heat that leaves the moment it sets. Within May itself the daily swing is 14.1 °C, so mornings and afternoons need different clothes.

How busy it gets

Busy. Popular without being frantic; book the things you care about, improvise the rest.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

May in Park City versus nearby

If Park City is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Salt Lake City is a better bet in May — 4.7 °C warmer, the same number of rain days. Moab is a better bet in May — 10.3 °C warmer, 4 days less rain.

So: May is a compromise. June is 20 points better and is what Park City is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Park City

See all twelve months in Park City, or where else to go in May.