Soaking Rains for Queensland This Week
05/09/2022, 8:05 am EDTHigh Fire Risk Great Plains Summertime
05/12/2022, 2:37 pm EDTDiscussion: April 2022 ranked 50th coolest on record (Fig. 1). The cool bias was driven by all-time top-10 Northwest to Upper Midwest chill. Washington observed their 3rd coldest April on record. Meanwhile, the Southwest U.S. including Texas observed all-time top-10 warmest months of April. Elsewhere temperatures were generally near warm. Exceptions were anomalous warm California and Florida plus New England.
Nationally, the precipitation pattern was near normal as a consensus of both wet and dry regions (Fig. 2). The dry region is centered on the southwest U.S. to Kansas where each state ranked anywhere from 2nd to 6th driest on record. The Great Basin, Texas and Nebraska all averaged drier than normal during April. Dryness also persisted in Virginia and North Carolina. Conversely, near record wet patterns were observed in Washington and Oregon plus North Dakota and Minnesota and Vermont.
So far in 2022, the U.S. temperature rank is 87 which is slightly warmer than normal (Fig. 3). The Upper Midwest has observed a cool start to the year while the Far West and East Coast are warm spots. California observed their 6th warmest April on record while Florida warmth was an all-time top 10. Much of the U.S. in-between the Continental Divide and Appalachian Spine are normal so far in 2022.
The precipitation pattern so far in 2022 is dry! Nationally, the U.S. ranks 13th driest in the 128-year climatology. The driest region is across the West and Southwest including Texas (Fig. 4). California observed their driest April on record. The North-central/East-central U.S. to the Interior Northeast states were wetter than normal during April. North Dakota observed their 6th wettest April on record.
Fig. 1: April 2022 state temperature rankings according to NOAA.
Fig. 2: April 2022 state precipitation rankings according to NOAA.
Fig. 3: The year of 2022 (so far) state temperature rankings according to NOAA.
Fig. 4: The year of 2022 (so far) state precipitation rankings according to NOAA.