April was an Angry Month

April was all about precipitation this year. It was wild, wet, and chilly all month long. We had quite a ride and the month of May is starting off more of the same. Although there were some notable 20 year records, there were no all time records broken this past month.

Let's dive into the temps. April was the coldest and wettest on record at my location dating back 20 years. That said I did not set a single overnight low record. The average daily low and high were 1º under and 4º under normal respectively. 

The warmest day was April 7th when a big bright sun got us up to 73.8º well short of any records. That was one of only two days to push through the seventy barrier. In fact only seven days managed to get to 60º. Six days failed to reach 50º but every day made it over 40º. The warmest overnight low arrived on the 30th with 49.7º.

The coldest low was also no where near a record, but was one of two days that dipped below freezing, the chilliest on April 11th at 31.2º. Not a single day last month stayed above 50º overnight and 18 days dipped into the 30s. The coldest afternoon high arrived on April 11th at 41.9º.  It came along with nearly 4 inches of snow. That chilly afternoon high turns out to be the coldest April high temp since I began my records 20 years ago. This was one of six days that failed to get above 50º which is not super unusual in fickle April. 

Precipitation is where the interesting stuff happened. April tends to be showery round these parts but this last April looked more like January other than the warmer temps of course. There were just three sunny days and I may be a little generous at that. 23 days with measurable precipitation which totaled 6.14 inches. That is January levels of rain my friends and well above my 'normal' of 4.24 inches. This was the rainiest and snowiest April on record for me. The wettest day came April 11th... surprise that date comes up again ;) 1.05 inches of water but much of it fell as wet sticking snow. That was one of six days over a 1/4 inch of rain. 

So the elephant in the room is that snow event that started innocently as mixed precipitation with just a wee bit sticking on evening of April 10th. The morning of the 11th saw that mixed precipitation change over to all snow around mid morning. Most of the greater Vancouver area got at least an inch of wet snow, my location tends to yield more snow than Downtown and Pearson Field where 'official' measurements are taken. I'm pretty sure its is my proximity to the Cascade Foothills. Anyhow I had 3.5" piled up on the ground by late morning; enough to wipe out my gazebo. I had just installed the canopy for spring... oops. 

That is by far the largest snowfall I have recorded at this location in the month of April. It is however, not the latest I have ever seen sticking snow. April 19th, 2008 I got an inch. I did receive snow flurries in May once, but that never stuck, in fact I recall the flakes were melting before they even hit the ground.  

This snow took almost a week to melt off. I saw parking lot snow mounds last weekend still lingering at Home Depot in East Vancouver.

So this past April was truly a wild weather month. Hopefully May will bring us the warmer spring weather that April couldn't muster.   

Soak it up my friends, soak it up.