The Final Third of April

April has been warmer than average in DC in 11 of the last 12 years.  NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center expects near to cooler than average temperatures in the DC Metro Area over the next 8 to 14 days.  Through April 19, DC’s average temperature is within 0.1° of average.

Eight of the first nine days of April 2020 were warmer than average in the Nation’s Capital.  That was followed but a rather dramatic change in the weather pattern.  Eight of the next 10 days were cooler than average between April 10 and April 19.  That includes DC’s first stretch of six consecutive cooler than average days (from April 14 – 19) since November.  Although Dulles Airport had two days of below freezing low temperatures during that stretch, the coldest it got downtown was 37°. 

Last week’s weather was dramatic as record rainfall and severe weather occurred on April 13.  National Airport had its seventh wettest April day on record with 2.33” of rain  It was DC’s wettest April day since 2014 and wettest day overall since last July.  Although DC’s April 13 high temperature of 81° wasn’t record setting, it was the warmest day of the month and was more characteristic of early June.  Meanwhile, the four consecutive days with high temperatures in the 50s – through April 18 – was March-like.

DC’s only cooler than average April over the last decade was in 2018.  Given NOAA’s outlook for near to below average temperatures for the rest of this month, DC to oscillate back and forth, twice, between unusually warm April weather to cooler than average.  The last time the Nation’s Capital experienced consecutive cooler than average April’s was 1999-2000.

Severe weather is often one of the major headlines in the United States during the final third of April.  There have been many significant severe weather outbreaks such as the one that occurred yesterday along the U.S. Gulf Coast.  To add to that, it was 12 years ago today that the DC Metro Area experienced a significant severe weather outbreak with two confirmed tornadoes in the Maryland suburbs, as well as several tornadoes across Virginia.  More recently the severe weather outbreak of April 27-28, 2011 was particularly widespread with 19 confirmed tornadoes in the DC Metro Area and more than 300 nationally.