April 2016: How Will this Month Be Remembered?

Key Bridge and Georgetown University on the horizon

April has been a diverse weather month for Washingtonians this year.  Ironically, it will finish with near-average temperatures.  That means weather records won’t fully capture how exciting this month’s weather has been.

April 2016 can be broken up into two halves.  The first two weeks of the month were significantly cooler than average in the DC Metro Region and snow occurred on three separate occasions.  Low temperatures were in the 30s on six occasions in the Nation’s Capital.  When the temperature fell to 30 degrees at National Airport on April 5, it was the first time it was below freezing in the Nation’s Capital in April since it was 31 degrees on April 4, 2013.  The high temperature of 46 degrees on April 5 was not only significantly below the daily average high of 63, but was also more characteristic of mid-February.  Through April 13, monthly temperatures were more than two degrees colder than average in Washington, D.C.

Conversely, temperatures have been significantly warmer than average for much of the second half of April.  That includes the high temperature of 86 degrees on April 26 at National Airport – more characteristic of June 20.  According to the National Weather Service, that was the warmest April temperature in Washington, D.C. since April 10, 2013 (when it was 91 degrees).  It’s been so much warmer than average during the second half of April that average temperatures went from being more than two degrees cooler than average April 13 to being a degree warmer than average on April 28.  A net swing of more than three degrees in just two weeks’ time is truly remarkable.

This month has also had a touch of severe weather, although, not as much as in past Aprils.  On April 7, there were a few scattered severe wind gusts (i.e. thunderstorms that have wind gusts of at least 58 mph) in parts of the DC Metro Region.  However, the anniversaries of two more significant April severe weather events have gotten attention this week.  Maryland’s strongest tornado on record occurred in La Plata in 2002 and an April outbreak in 2011 brought 19 tornadoes to Maryland and Virginia.

Most of April was drier than average in the Nation’s Capital, but some much-needed rainfall has occurred during the last few days.  Through April 29, 2.03” of rain has occurred this month at National Airport making this the driest April in Washington, D.C., since 2012.  Interestingly enough, high temperatures remained the 50s the last two days and will only approach 60 degrees as April comes to a close – significantly cooler than average – causing average temperatures this month to finish near average.  There hasn’t been a cooler than average April in the Nation’s Capital since 2007.