MONTHLY WEATHER DATA AND OBS - WESTMONT 1.1W PA							
APRIL 2013							
OBSERVER NATE MULLINS
							
Special Observations:  F=fog, T=thunder, H=hail,							
S=sleet, G=glaze, DW=damaging winds							
Observation time for this station is midnight (Eastern US).	
						
	Temperature, °F			Precipitation, In.			
				Liquid	Solid	7am	
	24-hour		At	Rain	Snow/	Snow	
Date	Max	Min	Obs	Equiv	Ice	Depth	Special Obs.

1	43	28	28	 .08	 0.5	 2	S
2	36	22	27	 .01	 0.3	 1
3	37	24	24	   T	   T	 1
4	48	15	37			 1
5	53	31	31			 T
6	55	24	43			 T
7	67	41	55	   T		 T
8	71	46	64			 T
9	77	58	69			 T
10	79	57	57	 .47			T
11	75	54	55
12	64	42	42	 .61
13	54	36	42
14	61	33	53
15	61	51	55	   T
16	77	53	56	 .41			T
17	64	50	59	 .01			F
18	73	57	64
19	70	41	41	 .11
20	47	32	32	 .02	   T
21	52	27	39
22	56	36	42
23	68	32	47
24	72	37	37	 .57			T
25	56	33	40	 .01
26	61	36	44	 .01
27	70	34	53
28	55	47	48	 .24
29	56	48	52	 .10
30	61	50	53

AVG/SUM	60.6	39.2	46.3	2.65	 0.8	 0.2 (avg)
EXT	79	15	69/24	0.61	 0.5	 2
Date	10	4	9/3	12	 1	 1
*=Also occurred on earlier dates
							
Miscellaneous Stats
			
Mean Monthly Temperature: 49.9°F (+1.5°F)						
Year precipitation to date: 13.46" (-1.45")
April precipitation departure: -1.16" (avg 3.81")						
Season snowfall to date: 108.9"						
Number of days with: 
Fog 1
Sleet 1
Thunder 3 
							
DETAILED OBSERVATION NOTES

CHILLY START TO APRIL
1: Strong west winds overnight gusting 30+ mph. Two very brief AM rain showers, then occasional snow showers
   mixed with sleet at times, clearing during the evening. A half-inch of snow/sleet fell prior to melting.
2: Continued quite cold with temperatures in the 30s and light AM snow showers tapering off in the afternoon
   with partly cloudy skies but still breezy and blustery.
3: Another chilly day with blustery conditions, gusty NNW winds, a high of only 36 with some more light snow
   showers but not measurable.
4: Very cold overnight low 15 F. This is the coldest April reading at this station (9 years of records) and
   is colder than any April readings from LaVale, even its all-time monthly low of 16 set on April 10, 1997.
   However, temperatures rebounded to the upper 40s with sunny skies before dropping quickly this evening.
5: Clear skies but nowhere near as cold as temperatures were steady overnight. Milder, variable to partly
   cloudy skies, mostly clear and chilly again after sunset. The day's low of 31 was set at midnight.
6: Another clear cold night with a morning low of 24. Temperatures again rebounded nicely into the mid 50s.
RAPID WARM-UP
7: Variable clouds with a continued warming trend and a brief light shower @ 4:15pm, not measurable.
8: Variably cloudy with light SW winds and mild high 71. Still a few snow patches where we piled it up.
9: A mild low of 58 and a warm high of 77 with light W winds. Skies were partly to mostly sunny. There were
   still a few patches of snow left this morning in wooded areas that finally melted for good today.
10: Mostly clear and mild early. Variable clouds with a couple of brief AM showers. Very warm high 79 F with
    a severe thunderstorm very narrowly missing us to the north this afternoon. Parts of town had heavy rain,
    high wind and reports of dime-size and larger hail. Another line of severe storms this evening prompted a
    second severe thunderstorm warning but dissipated to just heavy rain with .47" falling prior to midnight.
11: Partly to variably cloudy and continued mild with a high of 75. Very humid but no rain.
12: A period of heavy rain early this morning between 4-7am, tapering to intermittent light showers before
    ending early this afternoon .61" fell. Skies cleared with temperatures falling during the PM hours.
13: Partly cloudy, somewhat cool and breezy at times with passing mid-high clouds.
14: Cool morning low of 33, fair skies and pleasantly mild with scattered thin high clouds & light SW winds.
15: Partly cloudy, mild and windy this morning, followed by increasing clouds and a few sprinkles.
16: Warm and humid with variable cloudiness. Numerous thunderstorms in the area this evening from 8pm to
    midnight with frequent lightning and a period of moderate to heavy rain from 9:30-11:15pm .41" rain fell.
17: A light rain shower overnight and mild with dense fog lingering through early afternoon, very humid.
18: Overcast and calm early, becoming partly sunny and breezy. Again quite mild both day and night.
19: Mild & breezy during the morning with overcast skies and occasional brief rain showers during the early
    to mid afternoon. Only .11" fell here - much heavier rain to the west, and severe storms to the east.
    Temperatures dropped quickly this evening as a cold front plowed through.
20: Much cooler and breezy with some light rain and late-season snow showers (no accumulation) this morning.
    Skies gradually cleared during the afternoon.
21: Chilly overnight with frost and clear skies. Sunny and a bit cool, little wind, pleasant afternoon.
22: Partly cloudy early becoming sunny and remaining clear, another nice afternoon.
23: Clear & chilly overnight with frost. Temperatures rebounded from 32 to 67 - another nice, sunny day.
24: Variable clouds, breezy and mild with a high of 72. Strong thunderstorms between 3-4pm with heavy rain
    and gusty winds, .56" of rain fell within the hour. Winds were not severe here, but some scattered damage
    was reported around town. Temperatures plunged this evening following the cold frontal passage.
25: Brief overnight shower. Partly sunny early becoming mostly sunny and breezy, mostly cloudy again late.
26: Brief overnight shower again. Much like yesterday, skies cleared early and were mostly clear all day.
27: Clear and sunny all day. Chilly this morning low 34 but temperatures quickly rebounded to a high of 70.
28: Mostly cloudy with intermittent rain and drizzle from late morning to early evening .24" fell.
29: Cloudy all day with a few evening showers and near calm winds.
30: Mostly cloudy through the day with calm winds again.

MONTHLY SUMMARY	

Spring was off to a slow start, after nearly 40" of snow fell in March. It was April that came in like a lion
and went out like a lamb. The first week was quite chilly, with some snow and sleet the first two days, highs
only in the 30s on the 2nd and 3rd then a bone-chilling low of 15 on the 14th. This exceptionally cold
reading broke the streak of Aprils with a lack of any hard freezes. However, temperatures quickly rebounded,
with highs in the mid-upper 70s on the 9th-11th and lows in the 50s. The month's high of 79 was set on the
10th, less than a week after the low of 15. Temperatures were relatively mild for the balance of the month,
and finished above normal - a welcome change after a brutally cold February and March. The positive
temperature anomaly had equal contributions from mean high and mean low temperatures. The average high of
60.6°F was a whopping 22.2°F warmer than March's average high of 38.4°F. This March-April temperature trend
was a polar opposite of last year, when March actually had warmer temperatures than April.

For the 5th time in the last 6 years - with the notable exception of 2011 - precipitation in April was below
average. Far less days had measurable precipitation than in any of the previous 4 months. Again, there was a
lack of any particularly heavy amounts on any given day. Precipition was distributed quite evenly through the
month and was also distributed relatively evenly over the region. Light amounts of snow fell the first couple
of days, but unlike last year, there were no surprise late-season heavy wet snows. There were 3 thunderstorm
events, 2 of which produced some wind damage in parts of town, but nothing severe was noted at this location.
All in all, after the early chill, April was a relatively quiet and pleasant weather month.