Last month’s weather was predictably changeable as is April’s modus operandi.
“As is typical of April, the weather this month was extremely variable,” says Ron Lakeman, of weather services at the Southeast Fire Centre in Castlegar.
April began with unseasonably warm conditions continuing from the final few days of March — a high-pressure system producing bringing the sun.
After April 3, the weather turned cool and wet with a series of Pacific disturbances pushing across southern BC, explains Lakeman.
Between late afternoon of April 4, and the evening of the 14th, 95 per cent of the month’s total precipitation occurred. Most fell as rain but with cooler temperatures six centimetres of wet snow fell during the early mid-morning of April 13.
“This snow rapidly melted, but was still a shock to many after the warm start to the month,” says Lakeman.
He reports the remainder of April was much dryer with weak disturbances generally clipping the area bringing only a few minor rain showers.
“High pressure centred off the coast did allow for warmer and fairly sunny conditions again between the 24th and 26th,” he says, “while a large upper trough brought another cool down with significant winds and limited showers during the final few days of the month.”
The total amount of precipitation was 58.2 mm with 6.2 cm coming as snow. Normal snowfall for April is 2.4 cm with the record high coming in 1989 when 11.6 cm fell.
Rainfall was on average also at 51.9 mm with the record being a whopping 104.6 mm in 1996.
Monthly temperatures were slightly cooler than normal with the only notable record being a daily minimum temperature of -4.7 degrees during the morning of April 17.
The warmest temperature of the month was 23.7 degrees on the 26th.