Enough of April showers already
Are you sick of the April showers yet? I sure am!
I know, I know: We have no business complaining when you think back to how parched our region was last summer and the extreme drought conditions across Southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. Thankfully, snow and now a lot of rain have alleviated the dry conditions. We’ve also been fairly fortunate to avoid the horrendously destructive tornadoes and storms that have ravaged parts of the Midwest and Deep South already this spring. Punxsutawney Phil was right on the mark for a few weeks there when he seemingly correctly predicted “six more weeks of winter” on Groundhog Day. Everyone groaned, but February remained seasonably chilly and very winter-like. March started off cool, but things changed just a little before the official arrival of spring. Temperatures quickly shot up with no fewer than nine days last month recording high temperatures of at least 70 degrees and one day into the lower 80s. We ended the month 7.7 degrees above normal.
Now comes April, and all of this rain has everything lush and green. Mother Nature turned on the faucet this past week but, again, we were fortunate to avoid the widespread flooding that our neighbors in Ohio and Kentucky had where even more rain drenched them. Between April 4 and 6, Canonsburg received 2.69 inches of rain, Waynesburg measured 2.46 inches and Pittsburgh totaled 1.46 inches. That pushed the official precipitation total for the month to more than an inch-and-a-half above normal.
As for temperatures, it certainly has been a roller-coaster! Through the first five days of April, we were still averaging 7.7 degrees above normal. April Fool’s Day brought a high temperature of 49 degrees before the thermometer soared up to 72 on April 3. By earlier this week, lows had plunged back into the 20s and highs only reached the 30s with snow showers sneaking back into the forecast. The rest of this week should have us sticking in the mid to upper 50s, which is close to our normal high of 59 degrees this time of year. I looked up where we stand for the season in the snowfall department (officially measured from July to July each year), and we currently sit at a total of 33.8 inches of snow for the season, which is 9.7 inches below normal. What’s interesting is that we’ve gotten a little more than twice as much snow as last year at this point when our total by now measured only 16.3 inches officially in Pittsburgh!
Our lawn is back and greener than ever with just a few tiny brown spots here and there showing lingering effects from last summer’s drought. I need to get out and rake those and sprinkle some grass seed, and we need to break out the lawnmower for the first time this spring … if it ever stops raining!
Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.