May shaping up as USA's hottest on record, breaking mark set during 1934 Dust Bowl

Doyle Rice | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption This weather event hasn't happened since 1984 NOAA climate scientists say April 2018 marked the planet's 400th consecutive month with above-average temperatures.

The USA is sweltering through what will likely be its hottest May on record, according to a preliminary analysis of weather data.

National Weather Service meteorologist Victor Murphy said May 2018 should break the record set in May 1934 during the Dust Bowl.

The heat has been particularly noteworthy in the central U.S., including the upper Midwest and northern Plains, where temperatures have run some 5-8 degrees above average, according to weather.us meteorologist Ryan Maue.

On Monday, the temperature in Minneapolis soared to a record 100 degrees, the city's earliest 100-degree reading on record, buckling roads, straining air conditioners and triggering air quality alerts.

Other cities seeing record-breaking heat over the past few days include Chicago, Milwaukee, Green Bay and Des Moines, Radiant Solutions reported.

Overall, in just the past few days more than 1,900 heat records have been broken or tied, weather.com said.

According to PRISM, the avg. monthly temp for the CONUS for May is 64.6F, thru 5/28. #NCEI shows the all-time CONUS record being 64.71F in May 1934. With blast furnace temps across much of CONUS next 2 days, the Dust Bowl era record should fall. pic.twitter.com/O1OmDd2VsZ — victor murphy (@wxmanvic) May 29, 2018

For folks in the Midwest, the crazy heat of May follows what had been an unusually cold April. In fact, for two states in the Upper Midwest — Iowa and Wisconsin — it was the coldest April since records began in 1895, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

The Twin Cities saw their fourth-coldest April on record. Meteorologist Peter Mullinax of Planalytics said that Minneapolis' weather whiplash from April to May was the biggest on record, a rebound of almost 30 degrees.

Nationally, April 2018 was the USA's coldest April in 21 years.

Record-breaking snow also accompanied the cold in many areas, wreaking havoc with baseball schedules and seriously delaying the onset of spring.

During April, the average U.S. temperature was 48.9 degrees, which was 2.2 degrees below average, "making it the 13th-coldest April on record and the coldest since 1997," NOAA said.

Final weather data for May will be out in early June.