April 2019 Observations and Discussion

[Hawkeye]

The grass is really beginning to green up here.

[CentralNebWeather]

I did my total yesterday and to date I'm at 37"; pretty much the same exact total I got last year. Going off this map is pretty darn accurate from what I can tell. 

Thanks for posting this.  Looks like I am in the 42-48" range, about what I thought.  My average is around 30" so that is several years in a row above average in my area.

[Stormy]

We might eke out a 70° high temp here on Saturday, Sunday and Monday if we can get enough sunshine. That will be nice before the cool down and should green up the lawns. Things are budding quite a bit now. Hopefully this active pattern can deliver some t. storms. I've seen strong storms with hail at barely 40° in past Aprils. It can be a volatile month with big temp contrasts over short distances! We'll see... might just be a boring cold stratiform rain as well. Not expecting much snow here & don't want any either!

[Tom]

We might eke out a 70° high temp here on Saturday, Sunday and Monday if we can get enough sunshine. That will be nice before the cool down and should green up the lawns. Things are budding quite a bit now. Hopefully this active pattern can deliver some t. storms. I've seen strong storms with hail at barely 40° in past Aprils. It can be a volatile month with big temp contrasts over short distances! We'll see... might just be a boring cold stratiform rain as well. Not expecting much snow here & don't want any either!

Some guidance is showing potential for 70’s here on Monday as well. I’ll take it. Looking forward to this weekends warmth and real Spring “feel”.

[Stormy]

Some guidance is showing potential for 70’s here on Monday as well. I’ll take it. Looking forward to this weekends warmth and real Spring “feel”.

Yeah, The AFD from DVN said Monday has the best potential for 70°s here as sunshine is looking more likely.

[hlcater]

Lol of course. As soon as I mention the -PNA, the models are like nah and just take it away.

[Tom]

Dr. Cohen starting to see what I've been monitoring over the past week or so at the unusual development in the Strat off the GEFS which are usually pretty good at sniffing out the pattern.  Not that I want to see it nor do I care for more #delayedSpring wx across the board, but this pattern heading into mid/late month isn't shaping up to be nice at all.

 

 

Judah Cohen

‏ @judah47 18h18 hours ago

More

I have been hesitant to call for the demise of the #polarvortex (PV) but despite a seasonally strong PV, what seems to me unusually active poleward heat and eastward momentum transport is taking a toll on the PV and the end is nigh. Here's hoping for the hattrick when you return!

 

 

 

 

 

[Andie]

Big storm moving in. It's so dark it looks like just before dawn. Windy, air is so heavy and oppressive.

 

I'm in that hook where it says Benbrook. Fun Saturday, Y'all!

 

 

Here's the big picture. It's picking up steam as it hits the deep gulf air just east of me.

[Hawkeye]

I sure am looking forward to getting thunderstorms again.

[Andie]

This was a good one. It blew and rained so hard that nothing showed up in the rain gauge.

Plenty of thunder and lightning visible in daylight.

Good start to spring.

 

Edit: they're saying we got .80" but I think it may be a bit higher.

[Hawkeye]

Once the morning clouds cleared, it turned into an awesome day.  We've over-performed a bit and reached the low 70s with full sun and a modest breeze.  It actually feels warmer outside than inside.  

[OmahaSnowFan]

We’ve gone past the forecast high as well. Temperature of 77.7 so far today

[Iowawx]

Officially reached 70 here in Cedar Rapids. Feels very nice outside! 

 

The last time Cedar Rapids reached 70 was October 9, 2018. 

[Stormy]

Had a high of 72° here. Feeling great! Currently 71° with a dew of 56° & s. wind gusting in the mid 20 mph range.

[bud2380]

My car thermometer says 73°. Absolutely beautiful day. I hit the driving range for the first time.

[Tom]

After the low clouds cleared up this afternoon temps spiked into the mid 60’s and feels delightful. Lake breee starting to kick in a bit but it’s still pretty nice out. I can’t wait to feel the low 70’s on Monday which is the Cubs home opener as well. Rough start to their season.

[Minny_Weather]

Feels like an early June day. 55.3*F when I woke up this morning, 78.3*F now.

[gabel23]

Got in 27 holes today and man was it fantastic! Tried out new clubs and by the time the round finished I finally figured out the wedge shot! Got an eagle from 70 out and nearly did it again later in the round. Thinking I'll be keeping these babies for the summer! Speaking of; my thermometer on the ram had 78 on it which would be the highest temp since god knows how long!

[gabel23]

Welcome to the Great Plains and the state of Nebraska in April. Yes; even with all the rain, snow and flooding we have seen we can still see red flag warnings. 

 

Other things we will need to watch...

Wind: There is potential for high winds (sustained around 40 mph
with gusts at or above 58 mph).

Fire Wx: If the warmer/more N GFS scenario unfolds...can envision
Red Flag Warnings being needed. We will need to check on status of
fuels.

Severe tstms: can`t be completely ruled out in the further N
scenario...but we would still be dealing with a significant cap
that could mitigate the risk of svr tstms.

Needless to say...there is potential for multiple hazards with
this mid-wk storm. Cont to closely monitor fcsts and be prepared
to take any necessary precautions.

[Stormhunter87]

The cumulus are stacking might get are first real storms of the year today. I don't expect severe but still.

[Niko]

Went to Roscoe,NY today and I saw snow there. (elev. is 1,296'). Temp was in the low 40s., but rebounded slowly. Will try to post some pics. Headed back to NYC later today.

[Madtown]

[jaster220]

The 67F we reached around 4 pm beat the forecasted high by a full 4 deg's. With the light winds, it was (to me at least) the first true spring-like day with plentiful sun and no jacket required to be comfortable. We had that one day we briefly spiked to 66F last month, but I was indoors at work and there were some winds iirc. Either way, by the time I headed home in the evening I wasn't hot with my jacket on whereas today I certainly would've been. Took advantage of the light winds this evening to get after my first outside home project scraping and painting the wooden portion of my garage. Mostly the door and it's frame. Been here 10+ yrs now so it's overdue and I've been procrastinating. I like the painting part but all the scraping is a pain especially for a dust-allergic person like me and you can't avoid getting covered with the nasty stuff. Place next door sold and there's been a construction crew for about a week doing quite the make-over. It's giving me some ambition to tackle a home improvement plan I've kicked around for about 5 yrs. Perfect working wx this evening in the upper 50's. Too bad the sun had to set or I'd have been out there another 6 hours. 

[CentralNebWeather]

Quite a stat from NWS Hastings Twitter:

 

Back-to-back days 70+ degrees in Tri Cities for first time in 6-7 months! Fri-Sat marked the first time Grand Island had CONSECUTIVE days 70+ degrees since Oct. 26-29. At Hastings, it was the first time since Oct. 2-3, and at Kearney it was first time since Sep. 26-27! #NEwx

[jaster220]

Quite a stat from NWS Hastings Twitter:

 

Back-to-back days 70+ degrees in Tri Cities for first time in 6-7 months! Fri-Sat marked the first time Grand Island had CONSECUTIVE days 70+ degrees since Oct. 26-29. At Hastings, it was the first time since Oct. 2-3, and at Kearney it was first time since Sep. 26-27! #NEwx

 

Still waiting just to "touch" 70F here in the South of the Mitt, let alone up north. Pretty amazing after such a gorgeous day to see not only deep snow OTG but these new snowfall amounts in the last 24 hrs:

 

[Tom]

Still waiting just to "touch" 70F here in the South of the Mitt, let alone up north. Pretty amazing after such a gorgeous day to see not only deep snow OTG but these new snowfall amounts in the last 24 hrs:

 

 

Looks like we get to top 70F here on Monday for the 1st time this season..."cough, cough"...I think someone may be calling into work that day.  Depending on how far north the warm gets here on Thursday, some places nearby will surge into the 70's out ahead of the beastly storm later this week.

 

 

What's on the calendar down the line???  Could we see Back-to-Back winter storms???  Well, some models suggest a cutter to develop out of the deep south and track towards the OV/Lower GL's (13th-15th) and the 00z EPS is starting to hone in on it as well.  Let's see how this one evolves but it could lay down more Spring snow across the Plains/MW region a couple days after the big storm.

[Stormy]

Earlier this morning around dawn a tiny cell popped up right overhead. Had an intense (max rain rate briefly around 5"> per hour) little downpour of over 0.20" with occasional thunder. Looks like I'll end up with 0.29" or so this morning.

[Hawkeye]

It's great to get the first batch of morning thundershowers of the season.  I did not get any real heavy downpours, but several moderate downpours have added up to about a half inch, more than I expected.

[westMJim]

 Yesterday’s high of 65 at GR was the warmest high since October 10^th of last year. And if the low so far today of 48 holds until midnight it will be the warmest low also since October 10^th when GR had a low of 62.  So this has been a rather long cold season that is for sure.  Here are some snow depths in the UP as of yesterdays AM The Sault 23”, Marquette 20” Munising 28” Herrman 24” Here in Grand Rapids the snow has been gone for a long time but here on the north side of town there are still a lot of parking lot snow piles left. There are a lot fewer of them on the south side of town.

I have worked for the West Michigan Whitecaps (the local minor league baseball team) for 13 years and the yesterdays home opener was the warmest in that time and was told it was the warmest home opener since 1997

[Minny_Weather]

Got about 0.5" of rain last night. We don't need rain, but it's unreasonable to hope for a straight month without any heavy rainfall. 

 

Another late Spring-like morning. 57.4*F.

[East Dubzz]

No thunder, but some good downpours have lead to 0.63” of rain so far this morning. Definitely didn’t expect this much to fall.

 

Edit: Actually... my quick look at the gauge was a tiny bit off. Now that the rain is gone, look like the rain total will be 0.59”.

[OmahaSnowFan]

Got about 0.5" of rain last night. We don't need rain, but it's unreasonable to hope for a straight month without any heavy rainfall.

 

Another late Spring-like morning. 57.4*F.

The rain never really made it here. Ended up with only .02”. Would have liked a little more since I put down fertilizer yesterday afternoon in anticipation of rain last night

[jaster220]

 Yesterday’s high of 65 at GR was the warmest high since October 10^th of last year. And if the low so far today of 48 holds until midnight it will be the warmest low also since October 10^th when GR had a low of 62.  So this has been a rather long cold season that is for sure.  Here are some snow depths in the UP as of yesterdays AM The Sault 23”, Marquette 20” Munising 28” Herrman 24” Here in Grand Rapids the snow has been gone for a long time but here on the north side of town there are still a lot of parking lot snow piles left. There are a lot fewer of them on the south side of town.

I have worked for the West Michigan Whitecaps (the local minor league baseball team) for 13 years and the yesterdays home opener was the warmest in that time and was told it was the warmest home opener since 1997

 

While not dramatic, we actually have experienced "green-up" down here along the 94 corridor and yesterday the Maple trees were noticeably heavy with a red hue of buds! Still to reach 70F but the march to sustained warmth has begun - finally!

 

Edit - I realized that not only has this been a record long stretch of chilly temps but I've become aware since I no longer have my daughter in spring sports which occupied late winter into May with busyness and made long drawn-out winters less noticeable in past years.

[Andie]

Got in 27 holes today and man was it fantastic! Tried out new clubs and by the time the round finished I finally figured out the wedge shot! Got an eagle from 70 out and nearly did it again later in the round. Thinking I'll be keeping these babies for the summer! Speaking of; my thermometer on the ram had 78 on it which would be the highest temp since god knows how long!

Good ya got a bit of weather into that game!

 

I live on a golf course ( ashamedly not a golfer ) but the golfers have been at it creating 3 cart pileups. Until the rain yesterday, we had been seeing 80's and clear bright mornings that make the gods weep! We're cloudy this morning and very soggy but the week looks good

 

Our week is interesting. As Wednesday we'll hit 92*, windy as a front blows in. Then more rain, 70's, and Sat. we expect rain and the 60's!

Pretty normal Spring for us.

[East Dubzz]

I spoke too early before.. rain didn’t want to seem to stop. Up to .79” now, and it looks to be actually coming to an end for real this time.

[james1976]

I hear thunder off to my west. About to get my first real t-storm of the season!

[Hawkeye]

The clouds from the morning disturbance held us down near 60 through midday, but this afternoon more sun has helped us reach close to 70.

 

The storms to the west are pretty sparse and it doesn't look like Cedar Rapids will get anything from it.

[Andie]

More rain this evening. This time it's to the east and south. Dallas seems to be the closest it came to me but the light show to the south is real nice.

Very unstable air out there.

[Hawkeye]

We got zip this evening, so my total rainfall today is 0.51".

 

A nice cell tracked through southeast IA, dropping hail.

[Niko]

Back in Michigan. Weather here is cloudy and dry, not bad, w temps in the 40s.