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An unusually wet & cool spring? Only half right

Posted at 3:40 PM, May 06, 2013
and last updated 2013-05-06 16:35:33-04

Boy, has it been a wet and cool spring. Everyone’s talking about it. But everyone is really only half right.
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There’s no doubt it’s been much cooler than normal. Meteorologists keep weather records based on calendar months. So March, April and May are considered our spring months. Our average March temperatures was 4.4 degrees below our 30-year average. And so far May has been 6.9 degrees below normal. In fact, we’ve had below-normal temperatures for the last 16 days straight! But, believe it or not, April was slightly warmer than normal. You may remember that stretch of 80 degree weather we enjoyed toward the middle of April. That helped push our monthly average 1.7 degrees above normal. But unless things change dramatically between now and the end of May, this will go in the record books as an unusually cool spring.

However, it won’t go in the record books as an unusually wet spring. Despite plenty of clouds and drizzle, every month this spring has been dryer than normal. We had a rainfall deficit of 1.18 inches in March and 0.20 inches in April. And so far in May we’re 0.41 inches below normal. However, it does look like we’ll be erasing that May deficit over the next few days.

Patrick Rockey
NewsChannel 3 Chief Meteorologist

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