Upper Midwest and Great Lakes have never seen an April like this.

“It’s the coldest and snowiest April on record near the Great Lakes,” headlines the Washington Post. “Scores of records for both snow and cold have fallen.”

And surprise, surprise, the article tries to blame ‘climate change.’ 

Coldest-ever April in Minneapolis, Madison and Marquette.

Record snowfall for the month of April in Minneapolis, Sioux Falls and Green Bay, not just for a particular day, mind you, but for the entire month.

And we’re only half way through the month. With forecasts calling for several more inches of snow and with winter weather advisories stretching from South Dakota to Wisconsin, even more records are up for grabs.

The cold and snowions have forced postponement of a record number of April Major League Baseball games and many other outdoor events.

Even though the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin have suffered the most, much of the eastern two-thirds of the country has been both colder and snowier than normal.

As of today, April 18, nearly one-fourth (24.3 percent) of the contiguous United States is covered in snow, the 2nd-most snow coverage on record for this date.

Snow cover as of 18 Apr 2018 over the contiguous U.S. (NOAA)

Here are a few specific records:

Record cold 

  • Minneapolis: Eleven days below 30 F this month, the most on record in April by four days. As of yesterday, average temp so far this month was 28.2 F, the coldest on record by almost four degrees.
  • Madison’s average temp so far this month is 31.1 F, the coldest on record and about 13 F below normal.
  • Marquette’s average temp so far this month is 21.8 F, the coldest on record by more than four degrees.
  • Chicago: The mercury has fallen below 30 F thirteen times this month, the most on record.
  • Temps during both March and April in many cities have failed to match February levels.

Record snow

  • Minneapolis received 15.8 inches of snow April 13-16, its largest April snow event on record.
  • Green Bay’s 24.2 inches on April 13-16 was its largest April snowfall on record, crushing its previous record of 11.0  inches from April 4 and 5, 1977. It was the city’s second biggest snowstorm ever recorded in any month.
  • Sioux Falls, S.D., received 13.7 inches of snow on April 14, its largest April snowfall on record.
  • Erie, Pa. is within 1.5 inches of becoming the first big city (with a population of at least 100,000) to receive 200 inches of snow in a season. More snow is forecast on Thursday.

Amazingly, the author of the piece, meteorologist Jason Samenow, then inserts this goody: “A recent study suggested that severe cold and snow persisting longer in the late winter months may become more common as a result of climate change ….”

Uh huh.

Oh well, it is the Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/04/18/its-the-coldest-and-snowiest-april-on-record-near-the-great-lakes-and-residents-are-fuming/?noredirect=on&sw_bypass=true&utm_term=.3207d106e284

The post Upper Midwest and Great Lakes have never seen an April like this. appeared first on Ice Age Now.

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April 18, 2018 at 06:44PM

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