Sunday, April 30, 2017

expressive april departs... (pm.30.apr.17)>

Sunday's stats:

Low temp: 50.5F (10.3C) -- tied for coolest of the month
High temp: 71.2F (21.8C)
Rainfall: 1.36" (3.5cm) -- largest daily rainfall total of the month

This final day of April has been a remarkable one.  First of all, we had an extended period of showers and thunderstorms very early this morning which delivered nearly 1.2" (3cm) of rain.  Secondly, at around 5:00am during the rain, the temperature dropped to 50.5ºF/10.3ºC -- equalling the coolest temp of the entire month, which had first occurred back on the morning of the 5th.  And then, we managed to get several hours of beautiful warm sunshine which kept the day from being a total loss.  Finally, we had another period of thundershowers during the late afternoon which boosted the daily rainfall total to its largest for a single calendar day this month.  Now, at sunset, it is partly cloudy and quite chilly.

In a few hours we'll be saying goodbye to April 2017, which has had quite the vibrant and expressive personality.  We've had more than double the normal/average amount of rain for the month, but we also had a streak of eight days with temperatures which were way above normal for so early in the season, along with a few days of almost totally cloudless skies.  Also, we had some cooler than average weather during the first week, and then of course this excitement here on the final day.

As we move into the first week of May, our general pattern looks like it is going to remain quite changeable and fickle, with an upper-level flow which will continue to be embedded with some disturbances, ripples and wiggles.  That means we can expect a mix of sun, clouds and the risk of isolated thundershowers over the course of the coming several days, and beyond, with hints of a significant warming trend still showing up by the weekend into the following week.