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 ============================================================================= 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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