A rainfall total of 2.93 inches, recorded at the official US Weather Service reporting station located next to Grandfather Mountain’s Mile High Swinging Bridge, makes this May the seventh driest ever at Grandfather Mountain.  The driest May ever recorded at Grandfather, 1.43 inches of rainfall, was recorded in 2007. 
Grandfather has had a total of 19.06 inches of rain this year, falling 6.3 inches (25 percent) below normal for this time of year.
The average high temperature of 60.52 degrees was 0.22 degrees colder than normal for May, and the average low temperature of 43.81 degrees was 1.54 degrees below normal for this time of year.
High winds the evening of Sunday, May 11 and on into Monday, May 12 caused damage across Grandfather Mountain.
Trees were blown down across the Mountain while lots of excitement occurred up at the Top Shop construction site. Winds blew off some siding from the temporary top shop located in the parking lot and a port-o-john was destroyed along with sections of the construction fence.
A mountain-owned Honda Civic was blown across the parking lot and its windows were shattered. The vehicle was moved across four spaces and pushed into a ditch.
Some debris from the construction site was blown down to the switchbacks but the completion of a wind-barrier wall at the edge of the parking lot just a week before the storm prevented the prevailing northwest winds from doing major damage to the temporary gift shop.