April 2007 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Frozen, Roasted, and Dried

 There were many complaints about the lack of "spring-like" weather in early April, but the final statistics from the St. Cloud Regional Airport show that the cold first half of the month was balanced by a warm second half of the month.

Overall, the average April 2007 temperature for St. Cloud was 43.8°F (avg. high 55.0°F; avg. low 32.5°F), only 0.2°F warmer than normal. However, it was the result of extreme cold during the first half of the month, followed by extreme heat during the last half of the month.

During April 1-14, the average temperature was 30.0°F (avg. high 38.4°F; avg. low 21.6°F), 9.7°F colder than normal. If this weather had kept up for the entire month, it would have ranked by far as the coldest April of all time. During the first two weeks of the month, 12 of the 14 days had colder than normal temperatures with 7 straight days (April 3-9) more than 10 degrees colder than normal. This included three straight days with a high in the 20's, two of which set record cold highs on the 5th and 6th. Judging by heating degree days (65°F - daily average temperature, then summed over the heating season), the first week of April was one of the coldest on record, according to the National Weather Service Twin Cities, as Alexandria and Redwood Falls registered the most heating degrees ever for early April and St. Cloud had the third highest total.

Along with the cold, Saint Cloud also picked up snow from two storms during this period: 3.8 inches on April third, and 1.3 inches of wet snow on April 10-11. The April snowfall total of 5.1 inches was nearly double the normal amount of 2.6 inches and the most April snowfall since the 15.3 inches we received in April 2002. For the season, the total snowfall stands at 31.8 inches, about 15 inches below the normal snowfall of 47.4 inches. Still, more than half of the seasonal snowfall fell during the last week of February into early March. St. Cloud picked up 18.6 inches of snow during that week.

Back to the temperatures. During the second half of April, St. Cloud got rid of the snow cover, storms began to move well to the south of St. Cloud, and temperatures responding by jumping beyond spring-like weather. The average temperature during April 15-30 was 55.8°F (avg. high 69.5°F; avg. low 42.1°F), 8.8°F warmer than normal. Had that weather continued for the entire month, it would have been warmer than the previous warmest April by more than a degree.

The warmer weather brought our most significant rain during the month as 1.01 inches fell on April 21-22. However, most of the warm weather was associated with dry conditions. The total April rainfall of 1.69 inches ended up being 0.44 inch below normal. Given the generally dry conditions during the second half of last growing season, ground water is still fairly short, especially from Saint Cloud northward. During the past couple of weeks, the Drought Monitor from the National Drought Mitigation Center has showed a spreading of the abnormally dry conditions into central Minnesota just to our north. This week's Drought Monitor will likely show a continuation of the dry conditions spreading southward. Area river levels have fallen since the thaw. They now rank within the normal range, but will continue to fall without some rain. And, also, the grass and wildfire danger has been frequently extreme during our warm, windy weather. The current fire danger is rated as high, despite the cooler temperatures, and will likely push to extreme levels later this week and this weekend. Thus far, over 24,000 acres have been burned by wildfires this year, according to the Minnesota DNR.

April 2007 Statistics