In Michigan it seems we jumped from a warm end of winter to an early summer. For much of April the daily high was in the 50s (F) with local newspaper weather forecasts with charts showing the average highs in the 60s. By the end of the month radio news reports wondered if we were ready to set the record for the coldest April in Detroit (since records were kept). I didn’t hear whether the record was actually set.
Once we were in May the daily highs were in the 70s. It seems we missed the balmy 60s completely.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal weather people, say it wasn’t just Michigan. It was the eastern two-thirds of the country that stayed under a persistent flow of Arctic air, setting record cold in some places – coldest April in Iowa and Wisconsin – and nationally marking the coldest April in 20 years. I guess Detroit will have to settle for April 2018 being the second coldest.
NOAA also reports drought worsened in the Southwest and Great Plains.
Now contrast our April weather with this:
Jason Samenow of The Washington Post reports that for the planet as a whole it was the third-warmest April. The two warmer Aprils were in 2016 and 2017. Europe experienced its warmest April on record and Australia recorded its second-warmest.
Also: Kauai, Hawaii got just shy of 50 inches of rain in 24 hours, setting a record for the United States. Nawabshah, Pakistan hit 122.4F on April 30, likely setting a world-wide record for April. Yes, climate change models predict more intense heat and more intense storms.
So, if the world experiences the third-warmest April while the US is setting record lows, their sizzling temperatures must really have been up there.
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