April 2016 Weather Recap - Dry, With Average Temperatures

 

 

The dry conditions of March (1.17") continued through April (1.61"), but unlike March, which was the fourth mildest on record, April was just about average (+0.3 degrees).  March's warmth, however, extended into April for one day when the high/low was 79/61 on 4/1 (22 degrees above average).  But just four days later the temperature plunged to 26°, which was the coldest reading in April since 1995.  This came in the midst of an eight-day stretch (through 4/10) that saw temperatures that were eight degrees below average.  Temperatures then rebounded for the week between 4/17-23 as highs averaged 75°, twelve degrees above average.  But the month ended on a cool note, with the last five days 3.5 degrees below average.  Some other observations worth noting:

 

• The highlight of the month was the eleven-day stretch from April 12-22 which had sunny or clear skies every day and extremely low humidity.  Afternoon humidity levels in April are typically in the 40-50% range, but on these days it was mostly between 15-20%.  And on 4/20 at at 6PM it dropped to 9% - the lowest since a reading of 6% on March 30, 2007.

• March and April were the first back-to-back months with less than two inches of rain since the winter of 2012 - and the driest March-April combination on record (the previous driest was way back in 1885).  The combined 2.78" for these months was one-third the average amount of 8.86".  March was the sixth driest on record, April the eleventh driest.

• Despite the dry conditions of April, nine of the first twelve days of the month had rain.  The rainiest of the days, 4/4 (when 0.49" fell), occurred the day of the Yankees' home opener, which was postponed.  

• For the second year in a row the year's first 80-degree reading occurred on 4/18.  This was five days earlier than average

• Finally, although it had nothing to do with April's weather, on 4/28 the National Weather Service announced that it had revised the accumulation of the big blizzard of 1/23 upward by 0.7", to 27.5".  This new total pushed it ahead of the blizzard of Feb. 2006 (26.9"), making it York's biggest snowstorm on record.  The accumulation that was added had fallen after midnight on 1/24 but had been overlooked.

 

 

 

 

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Comments

[William]

this year joined 1985 as the only two years in which both March and April featured no days with 0.50" or more of precipitation. this was just the tenth March overall with no such days and this was the first April since 1999, and just the eleventh April overall, with no such days.