April 2024 Observations and Discussion

[chescowxman]

Another sunny day but much cooler than yesterday across the area with temps mainly in the 60's to near 70 (still almost 7 degrees above normal for today). Rain chances ramp up by tomorrow PM and will last till Thursday AM. Another chance of showers on Friday night before we slip back to below normal temperatures for the upcoming weekend.

Chester County records for today: High 90 degrees Phoenixville (2002) / Low 20 degrees in Coatesville (1926) / Rain 5.45" Chadds Ford (1983) / Snow 2.5" at Coatesville (1923)

[Timmy Supercell]

17 hours ago, Timmy Supercell said:

This is quite a development. Last night it was a generic t'storm risk almost not including my area. 

They later reverted back to a marginal for all of KY, and last night nothing developed in the Jackson CWA..

There were a couple severe warned storms south and east of Louisville and something way up in northern WV before those.

[Bryan1117]

Looking like yet another let down here in the Omaha metro. We have seen a few very brief downpours and some rumbles of thunder, however it’s been a massive disappointment moisture-wise… so far less than a tenth of an inch of rain. Hopefully we can get some better organized storm development later this morning and later today, however I am not going to hold my breath.

[Tom]

As I thought would happen out here in the "Valley of the Sun", the temps are steadily being increased in the 10-day and I wouldn't be surprised if we hit our 1st 100F by early next week...maybe on Passover??  Yesterday's highs in the upper 70's were fantastic and it was a perfect day laying out Poolside.  Going to enjoy the last day of 80's for a little bit as we Torch  midweek into next week!   

 

[Hawkeye]

As expected, overnight was a total bust.  Strong east wind is pumping very dry air into eastern Iowa.  On top of that, the entire area is covered in thick clouds.  At this point I'm hoping we can get a half inch of rain.  

[Timmy Supercell]

50 minutes ago, Hawkeye said:

As expected, overnight was a total bust.  Strong east wind is pumping very dry air into eastern Iowa.  On top of that, the entire area is covered in thick clouds.  At this point I'm hoping we can get a half inch of rain.  

I was surprised at how many areas were either capped or just didn't have a strong trigger, it was my warmest day of the year so far. We got to 86 and had little to no cool off until middle of the night. 

[Bryan1117]

11 minutes ago, Timmy Supercell said:

I was surprised at how many areas were either capped or just didn't have a strong trigger, it was my warmest day of the year so far. We got to 86 and had little to no cool off until middle of the night. 

I knew it was a bad sign when last night’s convection struggled to get going… the persistent drought locally seems to push away any decent moisture flow and makes any type of convection more spotty than usual. I was hoping the southeast winds yesterday and last night would bring in plenty of moisture for this storm system, however it got pushed north and west again.

[bud2380]

ARW mid afternoon.

 

NSSL

 

 

HRRR

 

[Blizzard777]

Good day East of the Rockies weather junkies!

Curious your thoughts next week (April 23 forward) on storm development in the mid west?? GFS had some activity but this morning I’m see nothing really.  Let me know your thoughts if we are going to see any activity for a strong-thunderstorm outbreak. 
 

I was going to depart the PNW this coming Sunday but I need some hope something will happen…..or should I delay 

[CentralNebWeather]

Overnight was a bust here, only 0.10” with no severe weather. 
However, we have had rain with embedded thunder since around 10 am. Moderate to at times heavy rain has put down 0.60” as rain continues. We are on the wraparound side of the low as it slowly moves east. Very appreciative of this rainfall. 

[hawkstwelve]

We're up to almost an inch of rain on the day, with more looking to be moving up from the south shortly. We should end up getting into the dry slot for this afternoon before the wraparound moisture hits us overnight.

It has been a gray, wet, dreary day so far today. Very PNW-like and a nice change of pace from the summertime weather we enjoyed over the weekend.

[hawkstwelve]

Tornado Watch has been issued just one county off to my SE. I believe this might cover @BojiMom area.

[Hawkeye]

Radar sure doesn't look like a severe event.  It's just a wide band of showers with embedded brief downpours.

[Timmy Supercell]

The storms don't like eastern Kentucky these last couple days.

[bud2380]

9 minutes ago, Hawkeye said:

Radar sure doesn't look like a severe event.  It's just a wide band of showers with embedded brief downpours.

Agreed, not very impressive.  There were some severe thunderstorm warnings, but those have elapsed and not issued further north.  Looks like we'll have 2 waves of storms, maybe the second wave will be more intense.  

[Hawkeye]

The dewpoint has risen nearly 30º since sunrise, but thick clouds have prevented any insolation across Iowa.

[CentralNebWeather]

Closing in on 1.0”. Very unexpected, and not forecasted to get this amount. We’ll take it. 

[Hawkeye]

Radar shows a hole in the line moving into Cedar Rapids.  It'll probably be June before we get a decent thunderstorm.  

[bud2380]

Got a decent downpour here and some really loud thunder, but the wind never really picked up much at all.  It wasn't anywhere near severe level.  The warning seemed unnecessary.  

[bud2380]

I see the airport is reporting a 48mph gust.  I don't get it.  I can literally see the airport out my office window at work and it didn't get nearly that windy here.  I've golfed in stronger winds than what just moved through.  

[Blizzard777]

4 hours ago, Blizzard777 said:

Good day East of the Rockies weather junkies!

Curious your thoughts next week (April 23 forward) on storm development in the mid west?? GFS had some activity but this morning I’m see nothing really.  Let me know your thoughts if we are going to see any activity for a strong-thunderstorm outbreak. 
 

I was going to depart the PNW this coming Sunday but I need some hope something will happen…..or should I delay 

Ok, looks like fuel for the fire is still there according to GFS so I’m still go flight for this road trip ! 
I do not have access to euro maps and curious what they are forecasting for next week??? 

[Hawkeye]

I got lucky.  A heavy cell passed just west of Cedar Rapids and another heavy cell moved up through the middle of Cedar Rapids.  I just barely got caught inside the western edge of the eastern cell.  There was barely any thunder, but it was gusty and the rain was very heavy.  I finished with 0.57".  Only one mile to my west only 0.12" fell.

I wasn't expecting much from the secondary line, but it is actually really beefing up.  There is a nasty cell near Ottumwa.

[Bryan1117]

1 hour ago, Hawkeye said:

I got lucky.  A heavy cell passed just west of Cedar Rapids and another heavy cell moved up through the middle of Cedar Rapids.  I just barely got caught inside the western edge of the eastern cell.  There was barely any thunder, but it was gusty and the rain was very heavy.  I finished with 0.57".  Only one mile to my west only 0.12" fell.

I wasn't expecting much from the secondary line, but it is actually really beefing up.  There is a nasty cell near Ottumwa.

Looks like you will finish up pretty well after all, much better than the paltry 0.20” storm total in my rain gauge. What will it take to get a semi-decent thunderstorm or rainfall event here!?!

[CentralNebWeather]

Now just a leisurely 53 mph north wind as the low moves away. One of the windiest springs in recent memory. 

[hawkstwelve]

Sister-in-law near Okoboji, IA reported the sirens were going off about 20-30 minutes ago. Looks like there was a tornado warning issued around then for a cell that ended up passing by just to the west.

Closer to home, we are now up to 1.14 inches on the day and have a slight break in the precip as the low moves by just to our south. We had an almost-midnight high of 67 but have maintained a temp on either side of 55 for most the day. A far cry from the 88 degrees we reached just a few days ago.

[Hawkeye]

The second line looked promising for a while, but it was very thin and raced through in only a couple minutes.  My event rain total is 0.67".  I'll take it, but it's much less than what models were spitting out a few days ago.

[CentralNebWeather]

Got home from school, and my guage showed almost 1.10” today. Way over performed. Now we have another cold rain coming Wednesday night into Thursday. Then rain and snow Friday night into Saturday. Nice. 

[Timmy Supercell]

They promise Wednesday provides the best convection in this area but so far I am not convinced.

Everything that moves into Kentucky has looked like light rain/debris from dying storms.

[OttumwaSnomow]

Well this system  over preformed here for sure!! 3 rounds of thunder. Still  thunder tonight.  I have about .88 so far. 2 bouts of light hail.  The 2nd round was squall line in my pics below   did finally  get some spin on it in eastern Wapello  county. There was a eery  sound that Ive only hear twice iny life... freight train. 

[CentralNebWeather]

1 mile north of me. Davis Weather App. My gauge was pretty close. 

[Clinton]

As expected not a drop of rain fell here yesterday however things are looking good for some beneficial rainfall tonight and tomorrow.  The Euro and 3km NAM showing 1in plus for mby and the GFS just a little bit less.  I could really use the rainfall, the strong winds yesterday picked up a bunch of dust and blew down trees including a apple tree in my yard.

[Clinton]

A good amount of severe weather and rainfall from this system.

[westMJim]

The official H/L yesterday at Grand Rapids was 72/46 there was a trace of rainfall. The sun was out 57% of the time. The average wind speed was 16.9MPH and the highest gust was 38 MPH out of the E. For today the average H/L is 59/38 the record high of 84 was set in 1976 the record low of 24 was set in 1983 the most rainfall of 2.94” was in 1922 the most snowfall of 1.4” was in 2008 the most snow on the ground was 7” in 1961 a day after a 11.8” snowstorm. Last year the H/L was 39/32 this was after 8 days in a row very warm days.

[westMJim]

We are now just past the half way point of April and the mean so far at Grand Rapids is 49.6° that is a departure of +4.9° the highest so far in 76 on the 14th and the lowest so far is 31 on the 6th There has been 1.54” of rainfall that is -0.50” there has been a trace of snow fall 1.5” is average. There have been 4 days with highs in the 70’s. At the current time it is cloudy and 57 here in MBY I had 0.11" of rainfall overnight.

[Tom]

9 hours ago, OttumwaSnomow said:

Well this system  over preformed here for sure!! 3 rounds of thunder. Still  thunder tonight.  I have about .88 so far. 2 bouts of light hail.  The 2nd round was squall line in my pics below   did finally  get some spin on it in eastern Wapello  county. There was a eery  sound that Ive only hear twice iny life... freight train. 

You've had quiet the wx magnet in the great state of Iowa...from all the heavy snow in JAN and now the severe wx.  I'm sure this won't be the last.  

Some wind gusts reports...

[Andie]

Expecting another warm Spring day. 85-86*.  
Photo taken at Barry, Texas. 4-8-24

[westMJim]

The official H/L yesterday at Grand Rapids was 69/51 there was 0.43” of rainfall. The sun was out just 4% of the time. The average wind speed was 15.8 MPH and the highest wind was 45 MPH out of the W. For today the average H/L is 59/38 the record high of 86 was set in 1973, 2002 and 2004. The record low of 22 was set in 1926 and 1983. The most rainfall of 3.30” fell in 2013 and the most snowfall was 3.0” in 1912 the most on the ground was 2” in 1961. Last year the H/L was 47/31

[Tom]

ENH Risk smack dab where the Eclipse tracked over S IL...actually, it more or less has a Slight risk right along the Totality Path...interesting, huh?

 

[Tom]

It appears that the majority of the U.S. Cornbelt region will be blessed with a lot of moisture as we close out April.  @Clinton you should finally fill up that watering hole of yours!

 

After looking at the overnight radar loops, our KC peeps did fairly well I'd say...#trainingstorms

 

https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/current/mcview.phtml?prod=ictrad&java=script&mode=archive&frames=75&interval=10&year=2024&month=4&day=17&hour=22&minute=5

 

 

 

[Stormy]

I wanted to comment about the weather on Tuesday, but I always get sidetracked in doing and looking at other things. Plus I was helping with storm cleanup for people from my church that evening. The first batch of showers Tuesday afternoon was heavier then it appeared on radar as PWATS were quite high, but I was in a gap between heavier cells of course. Still ended the first round with exactly 0.40". Then a short period of sunshine preceded an ominous shelf cloud from the last brief intense line of storms. The sky looked greenish, and I was out shooting video (with iPhone 15 Pro Max) and photos till the last second! But only 0.24" rain from that line with wind gust only around 43 mph and not as windy at my location as early in the afternoon. But had some decent hail with a few of the largest stones at 1" diameter. But 2 farms approximately 3-4 miles se. of me had buildings destroyed from a possible little spin up tornado or microburst? One building was totally flattened and the other farm had half of the roof gone among other damage. Total rainfall on Tuesday was only 0.64". 

 

The drought maps may be off for my location since we've had very good rains in March, and especially this month. Field tile lines are running since the heavy rains of early April and water is standing in roadside ditches after each rainfall. With today's rainfall I'm approaching 4" for the month. And it looks active again by late April.

Just checked my weather station and I'm just over 4" for the month now, with over a third of an inch so far today.