A look back at April and what’s ahead for May
April brought a lot of different weather to mid-Missouri but when you look at the averages as a whole, we cut out pretty close to average.
Temperatures were a slight bit cooler than normal, and keeps us just a touch above above normal for the year. Sunshine was pretty easy to come by too. Over 80% of our days features partly cloudy to mostly sunny skies!
Spring flexed it's muscles with classic temperatures swings. Summer-like heat brought us 90s on April 8th, with a strong cold front a little over a week later giving us a taste of winter with temperatures in the 20s.
While mid-Missouri didn't see any snow with the event on April 12th, less than 100 miles to our north fell 8-12" of snow across the Missouri/Iowa border.
A significant blocking pattern in the upper-levels of the atmosphere have kept cold air locked in place across the northeast and a taste of summer stuck across the desert southwest.
The lower Mississippi valley fell victim to several tornado outbreaks this month. The most significant outbreak came on Easter Sunday when over 130 tornadoes touched down across the southeast U.S.
As we take a look ahead to May, the pattern of heat off to the west, and cold off to the northeast looks to hold strongly in place. This will likely keep us holding onto comfortable temperatures and continue holding off the heat & humidity that can sometimes sneak in during May.
April's lack of above average precipitation also keeps us going in the right direction with regards to the spring/summer flooding outlook.
May looks like it will feature a similar setup, with no big signals towards any significant amounts of precipitation.
-Luke
