A bunch of pea sized hailstones just came down.

Still matters though. This ain't summertime, even if it has felt like it lately.

-NAO/-AO isn’t as relevant once we get into late April. I can envision a scenario where the ridge links up with the -NAO and gets “stuck”, in a sense.

I'll bet against a continued "torch" after the cooldown. I think a more reasonable best case scenario would be around to somewhat warmer than average which, considering the rising averages, wouldn't be that terrible.