May outlook

   April ended with a string of soggy, windy days. The last nine days of the month were cooler than normal the Twin Cities. We’re ready for some sunshine and warmth!

  Our average monthly temperature for April was 4.8 degrees below normal in the Twin Cities. This marks our sixth consecutive month with colder than normal temperatures.  Our lowest temp was 18 on the 15th, and our warmest reading was 74 degrees on the 20th.
   We witnessed the second wettest April in Twin Cities history, with 6.27 inches of precipitation (rain plus the water content of our snow).  We tallied 7 inches of snow, with 6.5 inches falling on April 3-4. Our snowfall total for the 2013-2014 snow season stands at an impressive 69.8 inches

   Looking ahead, the May temperature outlook from the Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service shows a tendency for below normal temperatures over Minnesota and Wisconsin:

   The outlook doesn’t mean that every day is expected to be cooler than normal…it is the average temp for the entire month that shows a cool tendency.  Cool can be okay in May…our average high in the Twin Cities rises from 65 degrees on May 1st to 74 degrees on May 31st.    

   

   I’m on Twitter: @RonTrenda and LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rontrenda

Warm enough for you?

  Temperatures have been above normal this April in the Twin Cities. You might be saying "no way!". Yup, it’s true. Despite cool temperatures last Thursday through Sunday, our average monthly temperature this April is running 3.6 degrees above normal. I think some of us had unreasonable expectations for April warmth after witnessing the warmest March in Twin Cities history. March was an astounding 15.5 degrees above normal. Think of our April temperatures as a “market correction”. Looking ahead, cooler temperatures return for the next few days, but we should still end up with an average monthly temperature at least three degrees above normal.

  The May temperature outlook doesn’t show a trend toward either cool or warm temperatures. Here’s the outlook, from the Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service:

  You can see that the best chance of above normal temperatures is over the southern states, with the upper midwest in the “EC” area. Put simply, NWS forecasters think that we have equal chances of above normal or below normal temperatures in May. We’ll see what happens. In the meantime, I’m happy that the grass is green and that golf is an option.