April damp, cold, dry

You are right to remember April as dreary, damp and cold. What it wasn’t was wet. The 1.7 inches of rain was the fourth year in a row of under 1.7 inches of moisture and the seventh driest April since 2000. Rainfall was 37% below the 2.7 inches average for the century.

While rain came down 19 days, 11 times it was less than 0.1 inch and 15 times less than 0.2 inches. The most rainfall was 0.34 inch April 16, one of three days of over 0.2 inches of precipitation. When it rained six of seven days April 20-26, that was only 0.64 inch and the 10 of 12 days of rain April 15-26 was 1.1 inch, 65% of the month’s total,

It frosted twice, both record lows, 29.2 degrees April 5 and 30.6 April 14. The 73.9 degrees was a record high for April 29.

The high went above 60 degrees only four times, starting April 22 and 27-29. It was generally cold. The average daily high of 54.7 degrees is 2.7 degrees below the century average high, while the 39.4 degree average daily low was 2.6 degrees below the average. Those combined for a daily average temperature of 47.1 degrees being 0.5 degrees below the century average. All three mirrored 2022’s temperatures.

This was the seventh year with less than 2 inches of rain in April. Seven years since 2015 are in the 11 driest Aprils of this century, with five having less than 1.7 inches of precipitation. We end the rainy season with 7.9 inches of rain in 2023 to date, 4.7 inches below the 12.6 inches on average this century.

Skagit Valley tulip growers did not top their flowers until May, display gardens open at least through May 14.

Data are from Washington State University’s Memorial Highway weather station in Mount Vernon.