(WGHP) – As the saying goes, “April showers bring May flowers” and if that’s the case, we’re looking at quite the bloom as we head into May.
A look back at a wet April
If you felt like it rained almost every weekend in April, that’s because… it did. The Piedmont Triad International Airport recorded a trace or more of rainfall every weekend in April.
Not only that, but 14 of 30 days in April recorded a trace or more of rainfall. That means we saw rain in the Triad for nearly half the month.
Those rainy April days certainly delivered quite the rainfall totals too. The two days with the most rainfall recorded at PTI airport were on April 7 with 1.55 inches and an observed 1.53 inches of rain on April 28.
As a whole, Piedmont Triad International Airport recorded 7.33 inches of rain, nearly four inches above normal for the month.
When we factor April’s rainfall total into the yearly total, the Piedmont Triad International airport has observed 17.59 inches in 2023. By April 20, the Triad’s year to date average is normally 13.70 inches. This means as of the end of April, the Triad is nearly four inches above normal for rainfall this year.
April temperatures were near-normal
April ended with a near-normal monthly average temperature in the Triad. On Monday, the National Weather Service in Raleigh released that the average temperature in April was only half a degree above normal.
One of the reasons for a near-normal average temperature in April has to do with the equal number of below-normal and above-normal days. Some days we were nearly 10 degrees or more above-normal and other days we were 10 degrees or more below-normal.
While the month as a whole was near-normal, we certainly had a few days that were abnormally warm or cold for April.
Our warmest day in 2023 occurred three times throughout the month, April 5, April 6 and April 20, with a high temperature of 84 degrees. In the Triad, a high temperature of 84 degrees normally occurs around June 8.
On Saturday, April 8, the Piedmont Triad International Airport recorded a high temperature of just 46 degrees, 23 degrees below normal for the date.
What’s in store for May?
High temperatures the first week of the month are normally in the mid-70s with morning lows typically in the low to mid-50s.
However, the FOX8 weather team is forecasting morning temperatures in the 40s and afternoon temperatures in the 60s for the majority of the first week of May.
The cooler temperatures to kick off May have to do with an Omega block that is controlling the weather across the United States. Read more about the Omega block here.
As May continues, high temperatures reach the upper 70s and low 80s by the second half of the month.
May is also one of the last months that we’ll see daily daylight gain, since days get shorter after the summer solstice on June 21.
Sunrise times go from around 6:25 a.m. on May 1 to 6:04 a.m. on May 31. At the start of the month, the sun sets before 8:10 p.m. However, by May 31, sunset occurs around 8:30 p.m.
May’s average rainfall is around 3.49 inches, just slightly less than April’s monthly normal rainfall.
The Climate Prediction Center is forecasting slightly above-normal amounts of precipitation in the Triad for the first half of May.
After a cooler start to May, above-normal temperatures are expected to return by the second week of the month.
The Climate Prediction Center is forecasting warmer-than-normal temperatures to remain through mid-May.
