April 2026 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

April Showers (and Severe Weather) Help Leftover Dryness 

Saint Cloud, MN, April 2026 Weather Summary

While April (5 days at least 10 degrees above average; 3 days at least 10 degrees below average) wasn't quite as extreme as March (12 days at least 10 degrees above average; 2 days at least 20 degrees below average), the extremes cancelled each other out more in April than in May. The St. Cloud April 2026 average temperature was 43.9 degrees, only 0.6 degrees below average. Still, April had 3 record warm daily temperatures, including record warm highs of 83 on April 12 and 87 on April 22.

Greening has occurred in central Minnesota, thanks to the heavy rainfall on April 27. While no records were broken, the 1.77 inch that fell in St. Cloud on April 27 was more precipitation than each month between September and March (and only .02 inch short of the August 2025 total). The St. Cloud Airport (3.17 inches in April) was surrounded by even higher April rainfall totals (set NWS Water Prediction Center map to zoom in on Minnesota and set the month to April) with 4-6 inches (brown, red) in parts of eastern Stearns County and parts of Meeker and Benton County. That was the highest monthly rainfall total since last July. That partly made up for the late summer through fall rainfall shortage (5.64 inches, 4.44 inches below average, 10th driest Aug-Nov in St. Cloud records). The US Drought Monitor, including rainfall through last Tuesday, showed easing of the drought conditions both in north central and southwestern Minnesota (compare the April 28 update with the April 14 update) but we will need more rain the rest of the spring to ease the remaining rain shortfall.

The rain and warm intervals also came with severe weather. The April 13 system produced both 4 tornadoes and large hail in southern Minnesota. The April 17 storm produced 5 tornadoes in southeastern Minnesota near Rochester, strong tornadoes in Wisconsin, and wind damage in both southeastern and northeastern Minnesota. There were a total of 11 April tornadoes in Minnesota. Minnesota averages 2.1 tornadoes per April and 45 per year.

Despite another lower than average snow season (a total of 41.6 inches), April 2026 was an April with more than 2 inches of snowfall (about 1/3 of previous snow seasons have this much April snow), thanks to a pair of early month storms. The total of 3.3 inches was a bit below the average of 4.7 inches.

April 2026 Statistics

Last Update: 2 May 2026