April, So Far, Is Cooler than Normal
You may have noticed that it’s been a bit cooler than normal so far this April. As of this afternoon, the mean temperature for the month at Hartsfield Airport is 56.3 degrees, which is 3.6 degrees less than normal. Here in Lawrenceville, the mean is 56.4 degrees, not varying by much. Except on March 9th and 10th–when it barely made 80, we haven’t seen 80 degrees yet this year.
Normal temperatures for April 16th are a high of 73 and a low of 50. For the past few days, the highs have been in the mid-60s, with lows in the 40s. Much of the country has had a cooler than normal April, as you can see from the map below, which shows departure from normal temperatures for the first fourteen days of April:
It looks like we’ll have one more week of cool temperatures, before we start seeing 80 degrees by the end of next week. If you’re a fan of spring flowers like me, the positive side to the cool weather is that mother nature’s show lasts longer than normal. I remember in years past when a warm spell in late March brought out everything at once, and it was gone in a week. Not this year.
Today, the Climate Prediction Center updated its long-term outlooks for drought, May and the early part of the summer. North Georgia has mostly recovered from the drought, with only five percent of the state in moderate drought, and another two percent abnormally dry. The dry area includes the northeast portion of the state, but not metro Atlanta. Compare this to a year ago, when 54% of Georgia was experiencing drought conditions. Lake Lanier continues to improve as well, measuring 1062.76 feet above sea level, or over a foot above where it was a week ago.
The drought outlook through July show no signs of drought redeveloping, and calls for improvement in the corner of the state where drought still exists. The precipitation outlook, both for May and for May through July calls for equal chances of above or below normal rainfall for most of the United States. Above normal precipitation is likely for Minnesota and the Dakotas, while it is likely to be drier than normal in Utah and Idaho.
The temperature outlook for May and for May-July calls for equal chances of above or below normal temperatures east of the Mississippi, with warmer than normal weather in most of the southwest, and cooler temperatures in the same Minnesota-Dakotas area that is going to be wetter than normal.
The Climate Predication Center notes that we are entering a neutral period, neither in El Nino nor in La Nina sea surface temperatures. With neutral conditions, there are fewer reliable signals of what weather conditions will be, compared to either a La Nina or El Nino state.
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