April 2017 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Rains Come in April to Top Off Third Mildest Cold Season

After a quite dry start to 2017 (1.99 inch of precipitation in the first 3 months), St. Cloud caught up on rainfall in April. A total of 3.27 inches fell during the month, including 6 days exceeding a quarter inch of precipitation. By the end of April, the 2017 rainfall had climbed to 5.26 inches, just 0.10 inch below average. And the St. Cloud Airport had one of the smaller rainfall amounts in the area as places in the eastern half of Minnesota picked up 3-6 inches of rain during April. Only northwestern Minnesota got mainly shut out of the rain.

While April 2017 was not nearly as unusual as the winter months, it did mark the ninth consecutive month with an average temperature at least a degree above normal. The April average was 46.0 degrees (average high: 56.5 degrees, average low: 35.4 degrees), 1.5 degrees above average. This included St. Cloud's first 70-degree high of the season on April 8. On the other hand, the only record temperature set in April was the 34 degree record cold high on April 27.

The April statistics pushed the Oct-April average temperature in St. Cloud to 32.5 degrees, the third warmest cold season in St. Cloud records, just behind 2015-2016 (33.2 degrees). The warmest October through April in St. Cloud records was 2011-2012 with an average temperature of 35.3 degrees.

While St. Cloud did end up cooling off late in the month with an inch of snow falling early on May 1, several cold season statistics rank among the warmest in city records. St. Cloud had only 65 days this cold season with a high temperature of freezing or colder, which is tied for the 10th least in St. Cloud records. Low temperatures dropped to freezing or colder on 150 days through mid-May. That would be the second lowest total in St. Cloud records, ranking only behind 2015-2016 (143 days).

That last inch of snow on May 1 ran the cold season snowfall to only 30.9 inches, a full foot below average. While there were 12 days that produced at least an inch of snow in 2016-2017, just short of the 14 day average, the generally mild conditions meant that the snow didn't stick around for long. There were only 65 days with at least an inch of snow cover, more than a month short of the 101 day average. The longest streak of consecutive snow cover days was 46 days, 40 days below the average.

In the past 6 winters, there have been two years ranking in the top 5 in snowfall (2012-2013 and 2013-2014) and three of the warmest winters on record (2011-2012, 2015-2016, and 2016-2017).

April 2017 Statistics