Wunderblog, 5/17/13, Dr. Jeff Masters
It was an unusually cool April over much of the U.S. during April 2013, said NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in their latest State of the Climate report. It was the coolest April since 1997, and ranked as the 23rd coolest April in the 119-year record for the contiguous U.S., putting the month in the coldest 20% of all Aprils on record. North Dakota had its coldest April on record, and six additional states--South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, and Wisconsin--had top-ten coldest Aprils on record. No state recorded a top-ten warmest April. Over three times as many record cold highs and lows occurred than record warm highs and lows during April. For the year-to-date period January - April, both temperatures and precipitation over the contiguous U.S. have been near average.
According to NOAA's U.S. Climate Extremes Index (CEI), which tracks the percentage area of the contiguous U.S. experiencing top-10% and bottom-10% extremes in temperature, precipitation, and drought, April extremes were near average, and the year 2013 has been slightly below average for extremes. The CEI during January - April 2013 was 18.5%, and on average, about 19.5% of the contiguous U.S. experiences top-10% extreme weather as defined by the CEI.
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