April In Vermont: Generous Showers, Temperatures Behaved

There were more than the usual number of April showers
in Vermont this year, which should bring an abundance
of May flowers, according to the old adage. Here's 
verification that adage is true. Photo is in my St. Albans
Vermont garden today, May 1, 2022

If that old adage about April showers bringing May flowers is true, we should be drowning in those blooms this month.  

Judging from the number of daffodils blossoming around my yard this morning, I do thing we're in for quite a flowery May.  Which of course is a wonderful thing. 

The climate numbers are in for April in Vermont and it was a relatively wet month, with above normal precipitation reported pretty much statewide. 

Most places had rainfall (and melted snow) amounting to a little more than an inch above normal for April. 

 Montpelier was a "dry" location as they were only a third of an inch on the wet side. Bennington was especially damp with an April total of 5 inches of rain, which is about double their average for the month. 

As icky as the thick mud was underfoot and under tires in April this is a welcome change from the past couple of springs.  Very dry and warm spring weather in 2020 and 2021 caused some moderate but persistent droughts especially across northern Vermont. 

You never know if things could turn dry again starting now, but at least we're in a better position with ground water than we were in the past couple of years. 

Those snowy days many of us had during the month may make it seem like we endured a chilly April, but not so. Temperatures statewide were very close to normal. Burlington, Montpelier, St. Johnsbury, Rutland and Bennington, for instance were all within 0.3 degrees of being totally average for the month. That's as close as you can get statewide to having normal temperatures for once. 

Another interesting thing was temperatures never did stray too far above or below normal on any given day. The warmest day during the month in most places were in the upper 60s to low 70s.  Except in the cold hollows, the chilliest nights were in the not-bad mid-20s,

For comparison's sake, we've had Aprils that have gotten into the low 90s and others that have gotten down to near 0 degrees. As you can see, we weren't exact setting record temperatures of any kind across Vermont in April, 2022.

The only extreme weather for April to talk about was that snowstorm on April 19 that brought a general three to six inches of wet sloppy snow to the northern half of Vermont, with locally higher amounts. That wet snow caused a lot of power outages and tree damage.  Areas around Chittenden County seemed especially hit hard by tree damage from that late snow. 

As always, we don't know what this new month will bring. We do know that today, Sunday, May 1 is going to be fantabulous! Lots of sun, light winds and pleasant temperatures at or just under 70 degrees is just about perfect. Except for the black flies. 'They're baaa--aaa-ccck!  Ugh. 

This is the month when the landscape really greens up. A few trees have tentative leaves in the valleys of Vermont. In just a few weeks, by Memorial Day, the Green Mountains will have become truly green.

If long range forecasts are correct, the process of greening up during May be a little slower than usual, as through mid-May, temperatures are expected to be below normal most of the time and we are expected to be dry as well. So that April moisture advantage we have could partly disappear, who knows?

Then again, I don't have too much faith in forecasts beyond a week out, so that relatively pessimistic first half of May forecast might not come to pass.