Weather Extremes

For the week of April 6-12, there were 121 weather records tied or broken. Many of the extremes were high temperature records with 41. There were 19 low temperature records, 33 rain and precipitation extremes and 13 snowfall records.

Many of the high temperature extremes were in the West with scattered records in the South and the East. The hottest reading last week was found at McAllen, Texas, with a sizzling 103 degrees on April 10. On April 11, Southern California soared into the 80s and 90s. The mercury topped out at 91 degrees at Anaheim, El Cajon and Wild Animal Park.

The record highs continued on April 12 as Anaheim reported a hot 96 degrees. Los Angeles observed a record 91 degrees on that same day. Normally cool Santa Barbara reported an 89 degree temperature. The Pacific Northwest also observed record highs on April 12. Seattle had a record high of 79 degrees; it was 82 degrees in Olympia.

Most of the record low temperatures last week were found in the West. On April 7, Oakland, Calif., dipped to 39 degrees. Four days later, Oakland soared to a record 85 degrees. At Stanley, Idaho, the mercury dropped to zero degrees. Yakima had a cold 21 degrees on April 9. In Mobridge, S.D., it was a record 11 degrees on April 6 and 2 degrees on April 7.

Record rains in the central U.S. continue to create flooding problems. On April 8, St. Joseph, Mo., reported an extreme 1.23 inches of moisture. On April 10, West Plains, Mo., received 2.42 inches of rain. Grand Rapids, Mich., picked up 1.61 inches of moisture on April 10. Nashville gauged 2.61 inches of rainfall on April 11. The largest moisture total was found at Vero Beach, Fla., on April 6 with 3.58 inches of rain.

Although it’s spring, more record snows were reported in the northern regions last week. On April 6, Mobridge, S.D., had 8 inches of snow. On April 11, Marquette, Mich., had to dig out of 13.6 inches.