May starts with a freeze as our wet and stormy April goes into the record books
May is finally here which means our wild month of weather in April has officially gone into the record books, and plenty of records were broken! Rain and storms were the big story in April. We have known for the last few weeks that it would be the wettest April on record but now we know exactly what that number is. 9.49" is what we officially picked up in April going down as the wettest April on record and the 7th wettest month on record since 1871. Average April rain is typically closer to 4".
We barely had any snow during April as well with only a trace of snow officially reported. It is the first time since 2017 that we haven't had any measurable snow during the month which averages closer to 2".
Severe storms were the focus of the month with currently 27 tornadoes confirmed across the state in April. We also had numerous severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado warnings, hundreds in fact. The entire month saw 304 severe warnings including severe thunderstorms, flash floods and tornadoes. That is a record, not just for April, but for any month in the year. April usually averages closer to 22 severe warnings in the month.
In addition to being rainy and stormy, April was actually pretty warm. We saw our first day of the year in the 80s when we hit the mark on April 14th. The coldest temp was in the low 20s at the beginning of the month. Overall, the average temperature was 49.7 degrees which is 3.4 degrees above the 30 year average and goes down as the 8th warmest April on record.
Now we look ahead to May. It doesn't average any snowfall but it's not unheard of for us to see some snowflakes at the beginning of the month. Average highs go from around 60 today to the low 70s by May 31 and the average lows go from the low 40s to the low 50s. May averages less rain than April with just over 3.5".
This year our start to May is cold. A widespread freeze is expected Friday night into Saturday morning away from Lake Michigan with a freeze warning issued there. Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha Counties are under a Frost Advisory. Both the freeze warning and frost advisory start at midnight Friday night and go until 8 AM Saturday.
Download the CBS 58 Weather app to track the weather for the first week of the new month.