Spring has proved painfully slow in the Washington area this year. Most of March and stretches of April more closely resembled winter. Flowers were delayed in blooming, and opportunities to break out warm-weather attire were few.

The numbers bear this out.

For the first time in more than a decade, April was cooler than normal in Washington, by nearly two degrees. It also marked the first instance since 1999 that a cool April followed a colder-than-normal March (which was colder than February!).

Even as the intensity of the cold slowly eased in April and we experienced bursts of warmth, shots of cold air kept coming through the end of the month. It was not just colder than normal, but also abnormally windy. Winds gusted over 30 mph on 14 days.

Adding to the wintry flavor, we saw snow flurries on April 7. Capital Weather Gang did not declare winter over until April 10.

  • The average temperature of 54.9 was 1.9 degrees cooler than normal, the first cool April since 2007, and the second-coolest April of the 2000s.
  • The total rainfall of 3.59 inches was 0.53 inches above normal, the wettest April since 2014.
  • The total snow of a trace was normal and the most since just 2016.

April weather extremes and records

The month offered a broad range of temperatures, but we were cooler than normal on 19 of 30 days.

Sometimes we were downright cold. On April 9, the high was only 46. But then we hit 86 four days later for the month’s warmest conditions.  The heavy burst of rain on the morning of April 16 helped the monthly total nudge above normal.

Despite all the ups and downs in daily temperatures, no records were set.

April weather pattern

The month was abnormally cold for the Midwest and Plains, with late-season snow events and potent cold fronts penetrating into even the South and to the Eastern Seaboard at times. The high-altitude weather pattern featured frequent domes of high pressure over the West Coast that acted like a sliding board for cold Canadian air, which established itself in March, to advance into the eastern United States.

April forecast evaluation

In March, we called for a colder-than-normal April and a slow transition to spring. This outlook worked out very well.

We called for the temperature to average between 53 and 55 degrees (compared with the normal of 56.8 degrees), and it was 54.9 degrees —  so we were within range.

Our precipitation forecast of 3 to 4 inches of rainfall (compared with the normal of 3.06 inches) also was correct, given the 3.59 inches that fell.

Finally, our prediction of near- to above-normal snowfall, between 0 and 0.5 inches (compared with the normal amount of a trace), also was correct, given the trace on April 7.

Since all three forecasts hit within range, our grade this month is A+!

January-through-April temperature and precipitation rankings

Year to date, 2018 has been slightly warmer and drier than normal. Neither measure for temperature and precipitation is considered extreme, because they rank toward the middle of the pack since 2000.

Capital Weather Gang’s Jason Samenow contributed to this report.