Mother Nature hasn’t been very convincing that Borderland is now more than a full month into spring.
Between record-breaking snowfall amounts and low temperatures, the weather trophy case is stocked at the end of April.
Precipitation for the month was right on target, however, it was colder than normal, according to the National Weather Service in Duluth’s website.
The average temperature landed at 34.6 degrees – 4.7 degrees below the normal of 39.3 degrees, making it the 13th coldest April in NWS recorded history.
“We only had four days with temperatures above normal,” said Steve Gohde, observing program leader at the NWS.
Two daily temperatures records were set: The 15th with 5 degrees and the 18th with 15 degrees. Not exactly gardening weather just yet and definitely below normal for the end of April, Gohde said.
“Seeing temps dip to almost zero (degrees) is certainly not uncommon for this time of year in northern Minnesota, but it does seem unusual,” he said.
And how about that wind?
Earlier this week, wind gusts reached as high as 45 miles per hour knocking out power and causing other minor damage.
Amy Rutledge, corporate communications manager for Minnesota Power, said Monday’s power outage lasted from around 10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m., and affected about 800 people locally. High winds knocked a tree onto a power line, which crews worked quickly to remove, she said.
The culprit?
Gohde said a huge low pressure system moved slowly over the area to bring the North Dakota-like winds to Borderland. It was the same system, he said, that brought deadly tornadoes and almost two feet of rain to other parts of the country.
“International Falls was on the very northern extent of that system,” the meteorologist said. “It is pretty unusual for wind speeds to reach gusts of 30 or more miles per hour for the duration of almost 48 hours. That wind was pretty persistent.”
Wind and cold aside, precipitation amounts for the fourth month of 2014 fell right in line with what meteorologists consider normal.
Rainfall amounts totaled 1.53 inches for the month. Snowfall, however, came in a little higher.
A total of 7.2 inches of snow fell during April’s 30 days, which is 0.8 inches above normal. Still, it was only the 24th snowiest April in NWS history.
The 2.8 inches of snow that fell April 24 broke a daily record over the previous record of 0.5 inches set in 1959.
Many Borderlanders might have grumbled at the sight of the white stuff on the ground again, however Gohde said the snow pack this year will help reduce any minor flooding risks.
“The early December snowfall insulated the ground and limited the frost depth,” he said. “We only had about 15 inches of frost under that snow, which is pretty low.”
Gohde noted, however, frost may have been more severe under roadways causing water pipes to burst.
In addition, little or no heavy rainfall also helps eliminate unwanted standing water and flooded basements.
“When we had the stretch of five warm days at the end of March and early April, we got lucky there wasn’t any heavy rainfall,” Gohde said. “Mother Nature timed the spring runoff really well.”
The outlook for May follows the same pattern this winter and early spring has set in Borderland. Weather service officials predict the month to bring below normal temperatures and near normal precipitation.
