April 2022 (April 2008/2011 redux)

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Weird winter, seemed like a “one hit wonder,” but the late February cold snap, and now this April blast have sure changed the equation. I held off grading the winter because I was waiting to see how March turned out, it ended up being pretty dull, but maybe more like a month late. We didn’t have a midwinter arctic blast here, but the massive late December snow event, white Christmas, late February cold snap, and 18” of snow in April, have to move us into at least A- territory. There were long boring stretches, but in the end it’s hard to feel cheated with how this thing turned out here. Regionally it’s probably a little lower, but no lower than a B. 
 

I would put this winter in the realm of 2010-11, solid not amazing, and will probably age well. I would love to hear y’all’s thoughts! 

Edited April 15, 2022 by SilverFallsAndrew

[Meatyorologist]

3 hours ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Weird winter, seemed like a “one hit wonder,” but the late February cold snap, and now this April blast have sure changed the equation. I held off grading the winter because I was waiting to see how March turned out, it ended up being pretty dull, but maybe more like a month late. We didn’t have a midwinter arctic blast here, but the massive late December snow event, white Christmas, late February cold snap, and 18” of snow in April, have to move us into at least A- territory. There were long boring stretches, but in the end it’s hard to feel cheated with how this thing turned out here. Regionally it’s probably a little lower, but no lower than a B. 
 

I would put this winter in the realm of 2010-11, solid not amazing, and will probably age well. I would love to hear y’all’s thoughts! 

A-. Epic cold snap in Dec, fairly wet overall, and an active late winter into Spring. Good snowpack situation currently. Including April, 6 out of the last 7 months below average. Good inversion pattern in Jan. 6 record min high temps and 6 record low temps since Oct. The only gripe I have with it is the super forgettable, almost unprecedented bore stretch from mid Jan through mid Feb.

It brought all the cards into play and used them all. The most active wet season thus far since 2010-11 and the coldest since 2011-12.

[Meatyorologist]

Charts like this bring me hope that we've finally found a way to break through this unprecedented 2012-present +PDO regime where the mean is torching without reprieve, no matter the ENSO state. Staying cold in a La Niña wet season has been unusually alien this past decade whereas before it was passively a given. If we keep this momentum through the warm season and avoid a torching summer and a terrible fire season, then that would be a dream come true.

[Meatyorologist]

00z Euro and 06z GFS are godsends.

[Meatyorologist]

KEUG down to 30°F!

[MossMan]

2 hours ago, Meatyorologist said:

00z Euro and 06z GFS are godsends.

As in a little sun and warmth? 

[Phishy Wx]

waking up to about 4" of fresh, still snowing and blowing out there.  that little ULL is still spinning overhead.  

[SilverFallsAndrew]

13 minutes ago, Phishy Wx said:

waking up to about 4" of fresh, still snowing and blowing out there.  that little ULL is still spinning overhead.  

Wow! Good to hear!!! How unusual is snow this late in Spokane? 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Got down to 28 this morning. Looks like SLE hit 30 on a 5min observation. Corvallis was 26 on the hour. 
 

Highs should be a bit warmer today with more sun. I still think tomorrow has the potential to be a pretty chilly day. NWS going with a winter weather  advisory above 2000’ tomorrow. So we ll be right on the edge of snow...either way tomorrow will be chilly and raw. 

Edited April 15, 2022 by SilverFallsAndrew

[Phishy Wx]

11 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

Wow! Good to hear!!! How unusual is snow this late in Spokane? 

it happens, this is the latest ive seen in 4 years here.  I need to dig into the Climatology when I have a chance later

[Meatyorologist]

Looks like there was more low level moisture than expected. Clouded up with stratus early and stayed that way.

Of course tonights low of 36°F was the average for mid December, so not exactly mild...

[SilverFallsAndrew]

7 minutes ago, Meatyorologist said:

Looks like there was more low level moisture than expected. Clouded up with stratus early and stayed that way.

Of course tonights low of 36°F was the average for mid December, so not exactly mild...

Our average lows are still fairly chilly, I believe for the date it is 36 (average bottoms out around 28/29 in late December.), our average high however is up to 57 for the date.

[Timmy Supercell]

If April isn't done with snow east of the cascades, ORKL5 just matched 2010. 

[TacomaWaWx]

Got down to 33 this morning for the second morning in a row. Slight chance of a freeze the next couple nights but most likely will end up in the 34-36 degree range. Still…I recorded the latest freeze I’ve had here Wednesday. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

9 minutes ago, Timmy Supercell said:

If April isn't done with snow east of the cascades, ORKL5 just matched 2010. 

K Falls will get rocked Tonight!

[TacomaWaWx]

Some interesting stats for this first half of April. Some benchmarks have been set for the 21st century. 

-2 Trace snowfalls on 4/12 and 4/14

-wet snowfall on 4 consecutive days

-3 freezes on 4/6, 4/12 and 4/13

-latest freeze on record 4/13

-all time coldest day 42/32 on 4/13

-record cold first half of April 44.8 avg. temp (March finished 47.0)

 

[Anti Marine Layer]

26 minutes ago, TacomaWaWx said:

Some interesting stats for this first half of April. Some benchmarks have been set for the 21st century. 

-2 Trace snowfalls on 4/12 and 4/14

-wet snowfall on 4 consecutive days

-3 freezes on 4/6, 4/12 and 4/13

-latest freeze on record 4/13

-all time coldest day 42/32 on 4/13

-record cold first half of April 44.8 avg. temp (March finished 47.0)

 

Global warming 

[TacomaWaWx]

2 minutes ago, Mr Marine Layer said:

Global warming 

Lol, a couple of colder than normal periods still don’t match the overall warming we’ve experienced the last few decades. 

[Kayla]

Incredible week of cold and snow stretch looks to continue through today before finally warming above freezing tomorrow afternoon out ahead of another system with more snow tomorrow night.

Up to about 36" of snow on the month with an average temp of 30.1F through the first 14 days.

4/10 - 37/18 snow begins...

4/11 - 30/13 snow

4/12 - 24/10 lots of snow

4/13 - 22/6 snow

4/14 - 29/4 more snow

4/15 - low of 10 and snow

[TacomaWaWx]

Each of the cold outbreaks we had this cold season (December, February and April) all ended up being impressive in their own right. Overall one of my favorite winters in my lifetime. 
-December featured 7 consecutive measurable snowfall days…8 total. 12/27 was the coldest day in 30 years. 
-February had a low temp of 21 on 2/23…benchmark cold for that late in the season. 
-April had 2 measurable snowfall days…benchmark cold temps for mid April. Very sustained period of cold as well after the mini heatwave. 

[Omegaraptor]

25 minutes ago, TacomaWaWx said:

Each of the cold outbreaks we had this cold season (December, February and April) all ended up being impressive in their own right. Overall one of my favorite winters in my lifetime. 
-December featured 7 consecutive measurable snowfall days…8 total. 12/27 was the coldest day in 30 years. 
-February had a low temp of 21 on 2/23…benchmark cold for that late in the season. 
-April had 2 measurable snowfall days…benchmark cold temps for mid April. Very sustained period of cold as well after the mini heatwave. 

Really glad I got to be in Sunriver for much of the December cold snap. Absolutely insane amounts of Canadian Rockies tier powder at Bachelor complete with 5F temps and blasting wind at 7700' - some of the most epic winter weather I've ever experienced. Blew away every forecast - 6" forecast overnight seemingly turned into 2' every time. Sunriver got snow nearly every day as well. I didn't get to see a subzero low but the insane snowfall made up for it.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

The pattern in April 1951 would have been interesting... Very warm dry month overall. Silver Falls all time April low was set on the 21st that month on a day that was 66/19. SLE was 68/26 on that day too... I'm guessing a continental airmass with very low dewpoints. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

The April 1911 cold snap was pretty impressive at SLE, they had a 44/30 day on the 13th. 

[Omegaraptor]

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/antarctica-hit-70-degrees-above-average-in-march-an-apparent-world-record/

70 degrees above normal in Antarctica. Wonder if it's all that stratospheric water vapor Phil is talking about.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

GFS seems to be cutting down on our chances for dry days next week. 

[Phil]

23 minutes ago, Omegaraptor said:

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/antarctica-hit-70-degrees-above-average-in-march-an-apparent-world-record/

70 degrees above normal in Antarctica. Wonder if it's all that stratospheric water vapor Phil is talking about.

Interesting article. But this statement is false.

“At the beginning of the warm spell, an ice shelf the size of New York City collapsed in East Antarctica. The collapse, captured by satellite images, marked the first time in human history that the frigid region had an ice shelf collapse”.

I think they meant modern history, not human history. Otherwise it makes no sense.

[Phil]

Looks like Tim had another freeze last night.

https://www.northbendweather.com/WWL-mobile.php

[TT-SEA]

Just now, Phil said:

Looks like Tim had another freeze last night.

https://www.northbendweather.com/WWL-mobile.php

Yes... there was a little frost on the car in driveway this morning.    But there was no ice on a puddle in the driveway.    So maybe not a hard freeze?   

[Omegaraptor]

Just now, Phil said:

Looks like Tim had another freeze last night.

https://www.northbendweather.com/WWL-mobile.php

I had a 26°F low. Coldest in the western lowlands.

[BLI snowman]

35 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

The pattern in April 1951 would have been interesting... Very warm dry month overall. Silver Falls all time April low was set on the 21st that month on a day that was 66/19. SLE was 68/26 on that day too... I'm guessing a continental airmass with very low dewpoints. 

Yeah that was a big backdoor Rockies arctic event that kind of downsloped us here but still brought the cold lows. Bozeman had a high of 27 and low of 9 there on the 20th.

Edited April 15, 2022 by BLI snowman

[BLI snowman]

2 minutes ago, Omegaraptor said:

I had a 26°F low. Coldest in the western lowlands.

Pretty impressive, too. The daily record at the OSU station in Corvallis was 28 in 1893, so good chance they tied or broke it (probably run a smidge milder than the airport).

[FroYoBro]

Got down to 30 last night before fog formed. Chilly. 

[The Blob]

Got to 30 at my house then got super foggy. Took it a while to cross over, but has fully burned off now.

[Anti Marine Layer]

Chilly April

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Redmond, OR tied a record low this morning: 17 set in 1955. 

Looks like Baker City tied their record low of 17 from 2013. 

McMinnville, OR hit 27, broke their record of 28 from 1924. 

 

[Timmy Supercell]

3 hours ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

K Falls will get rocked Tonight!

These 2 Aprils are currently that stations snowiest ever recorded. We'll have to refer to the old town's snowfalls and compare 2022 if another 2-3" inches fall there tonight. Here are April's with more than 5" at the 2 SSW site. 

1933 - 15.0"
1927 - 7.8"
1955 - 7.0"
1963 - 6.0"
1978 - 5.0"

But some of their spring time snowfall looks questionable, they went nearly the entire 1990's with zero snowfall in April. No March-April snow in 1993? 

[T-Town]

43 here a few minutes before noon. Chilly. 

[Deweydog]

Friday update

[Phishy Wx]

Nice write up on the Wenatchee storm from yesterday

 

http://inlandnorthwestweather.blogspot.com/2022/04/historic-april-snowstorm-hits-wenatchee.html?fbclid=IwAR1bdMa2udOMNIvzxvIfeTcNjMFnCER5YfCguK8bG6MTonHV5JMfzEIXROA

[TacomaWaWx]

43 and mostly cloudy. Showers are starting to bubble up to the south. Pretty doubtful we get full on snow showers like the last couple days but wouldn’t be surprised if we had some flakes and hail mix in under heavier showers today and tomorrow.