John McGinley, Peak to Peak.

April 2018 …….Well, what can we say. Northwesterly upper level flow again dominated the first part of the month, giving us days warmer and drier than normal. We expect big precipitation totals in April, but this year we fell far short with only about 67% of normal. We started the month with a warm dry week. The first significant snow occurred between the 6th and 8th with about 7 inches. Ten mostly dry days followed with warmer than normal temperatures. Oh, did I mention the winds: 11 windy days out of the first 15 days. As flow turned more southwesterly aloft we quieted the winds and opened the door for a pretty good storm on the 24th. Nine inches from this storm brought the monthly total to 21 inches. The remaining six days were very warm with highs in the upper 60s. This helped to make the month about 2 degrees above normal.

Precipitation: Total water equivalent was 1.88 inches about an inch below normal. Most of this was snow which topped out at 21.1 inches, 9 inches below normal. It was quite extraordinary that we had so few days with snow cover in April! Any snow that fell melted very quickly.

Temperature: Average high for the month was 52.0F with an average low of 27. 1F. These stats combined to make the month 2 degrees above normal. Coldest day hit 14F on the 3rd, with the warmest of 69F on the 28th and 29th.

Winds: With 13 days of winds 40+ mph this April was in the top 1% of windy Aprils. Two days we had winds over 60mph that brought down a few trees and did some damage to homes. After the 18th winds quieted down significantly.

Other features : It was a tale of two weather regimes: northwesterly flow in the first half and southwesterly in the second half. The former brings strong winds and generally dry conditions. The latter more moist conditions with a more favorable storm track.

Outlook for May: We see significant warming in a typical May. The average high is 59F with a low of 32F. May is quite wet with 2.83 inches along with 11 inches of snow. The first few days will be somewhat wet followed by another weaker storm on the 7th-8th. After that warm and dry conditions will prevail. It is likely we will see precipitation near normal but temperatures well above normal. May is significant for what kind of fire season we will deal with in June and July.

(Originally published in the May 10, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)