April 2005 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Cold Late April Only Tempers Warmth

 For those of you fed up with the past week and a half, you have a short memory. There's no question that the weather was chilly during April 22-30, but that merely dragged the average April Saint Cloud temperature down to 48.8°F (avg. high 60.9°F; avg. low 36.7°F). This still ended up being 5.2°F warmer than normal. The cool weather knocked April 2005 out of the ten warmest Aprils, but it still ranks as tied with 1901 as the 13th warmest April on record and the warmest since 1985. Before the cold spell, the first three weeks of April had averaged 52.3°F (avg. high 65.6°F; avg. low 39.0°F). This warm temperature would have ranked as the second warmest April in Saint Cloud history, falling short of only 1915.

The cold period of April 22-30 wasn't really that incredibly cold for late April. The average temperature during those nine days was 40.7°F. The late April weather was more typical of April 5 and averaged nearly 3 degrees colder than normal. It also featured some snowflakes and sleet pellets in the air. Because some plants had begun to bud and flower in the early April warmth, the cool weather did have a negative effect on some plant life. Still, we are far from the average date of the last Saint Cloud frost, which is May 12.

The cool late April of 2005 was a marked contrast to even last April. On April 28, 2004 Saint Cloud hit 92°F. This heat broke a record high for the day by 6°F and was only the third April day with a high of at least 90°F since Saint Cloud daily temperature records began in 1897.

However, Saint Cloud did not experience the worst of the cold by any stretch of the imagination. A major snowstorm on April 23-25 dumped a foot of snow in Detroit, Flint, and eastern Michigan with 1-2 feet of snow in the Cleveland area. And, on the first night in May, Amarillo, Texas, had more than 3 inches of snow. Meanwhile, Saint Cloud only recorded a trace of snow in April. This marks only the third time since 1987 that there wasn't measurable April snowfall in Saint Cloud.

By the way, we nearly picked up measurable snowfall (or more accurately, hail accumulation) on Sunday. During the most intense hail Sunday afternoon, some of the hail covered parts of the ground since it didn't melt on contact. However, we never achieved a full dusting.

Without measurable snowfall, the 2004-2005 Saint Cloud Airport snowfall remained 27.1 inches, 16 inches below normal for the year. (Monthly Snowfall since 2000 and Average Monthly and Seasonal Snowfall) This probably means that the 2004-2005 cold season has the least snow since lowest since 1986-1987 (16.7 inches, 5th lowest snowfall on record; Top 10 Whitest/Brownest snowfall seasons). 2004-2005 also ranks 22nd lowest seasonal snowfall on record. However, as noted last month, how far Saint Cloud below normal may have depended on observation technique since Saint Cloud State University has received 37.7 inches of snowfall this winter.

In contrast to the snow, the measurable precipitation returned to near normal levels in April. The total precipitation of 2.11 inches was only 0.02 inch from normal. Periods of thunderstorms and heavy rain produced at least 0.40 inches on three days (April 5, 11, 12).

April 2005 Statistics