SUBJECT: April was cool, but not "way cool."
	 St. Cloud April 1997 Weather Summary

	The month of April in Saint Cloud was a cool and dry one. The average
temperature of 41.2 degrees was 2.3 degrees below normal. This continues an 
odd trend in the past 10 years. Only one April since 1988 has had normal or 
above normal temperatures (1991 was the lone exception). This is quite 
frustrating, given that most Minnesotans are fed up with the 6-month winter 
by January. 
	The most severe cold in April 1997 occurred during April 7-10
when 5 record daily record cold temperatures were either broken or tied in
Saint Cloud.
	The total monthly precipitation of 0.69 inches was less than 30% of 
the normal value and the 11th driest in the 92 years of St. Cloud 
precipitation records. April 1997 ranks just behind April 1996 (0.64 
inches--10th lowest on record). Almost all of this precipitation fell in 
the first 6 days of the month, including 0.52 inches from the storm of 
April 4-6 (the heavy rain/blizzard in western Minnesota and North Dakota 
that was the final straw in pushing the Red River Valley floods to record 
levels). However, now that the Central Minnesota rivers are back within 
their banks, this month marked the 7th month in the last 9 growing season 
months (April-October) which had below normal rainfall. So, April 1997 did 
not help to ease the stress on ground water levels which are still low due 
to last year's dry growing season. All of this winter's snow did not help 
the ground water situation since most of the snowmelt ran off before the 
frost was out of the ground in areas not affected by flooding.
	Only 0.2 inches of snow fell in April 1997 in St. Cloud. This is
the least April snow since 1988. At least 2.4 inches of snow fell in April
every year between 1989 and 1996. Despite the deep snow cover this winter,
the seasonal snowfall total of 62.8 inches does not make the top 10 snowiest
winters for St. Cloud.

MONTHLY STATISTICS              APR 1997        NORMAL
TEMPERATURE (DEG F)
Average high temp                53.0            55.0
Average low temp                 29.3            32.0
Overall average                  41.2            43.5
Warmest high temperature         70 on the 28th
Coolest high temperature         22 on the 7th (record--see below)
Mildest low temperature          46 on the 4th and 5th
Coldest low temperature           7 on the 8th (record--see below)

Records set:                   
Coldest daily low temperatures: 9 on the 7th (old record: 10 in 1936)
				7 on the 8th (old record: 13 in 1974)
			       14 (tie) on the 9th (also set in 1960)
Coldest daily high temperatures: 22 on the 7th (old record: 27 in 1923)
				 31 on the 10th (old record: 33 in 1950)
PRECIPITATION
Total melted precip (in)         0.69            2.36
Most in 24 hours                 .47 on the 5th

SNOWFALL (in)                     0.2             2.7
Most in 24 hours                  0.2 on the 6th

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Bob Weisman, Associate Professor	PHONE: (320) 255-3247 (work)
Earth Sciences Department		       (320) 253-8820 (home)
MS 48					FAX:   (320) 255-4262
Saint Cloud State University		EMAIL: scsweisman@tigger.stcloud.
720 4th Avenue South			       msus.edu
Saint Cloud, Minnesota 56301-4498
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URL: http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/stc9704.htm
Last modified: May 1, 1997