Death Valley's 113°: hottest April temperature on record in U.S.
An unprecedented April heat wave brought a second day of sizzling temperatures to the Western U.S. yesterday, where temperatures ranging 20 - 30 degrees above normal have toppled numerous all-time April heat records. Nearly every weather station in the Inter-mountain West has broken, tied, or come within 1 - 2 °F of their all-time record April heat record since Sunday. Most notably, the 113°F measured at Furnace Creek in Death Valley, California on Sunday, April 22 was tied for the hottest April temperature ever recorded in the U.S. According to wunderground weather historian Christopher C. Burt, the hottest reliable April temperature ever measured in the U.S. was 113°F in Parker, Arizona in 1898. A 113°F reading was also taken at Catarina, Texas in April 1984, and at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley on April 24, 1946. A hotter 118°F reading measured at Volcano Springs, CA in April 1898 is considered unreliable, since we don't know much about the exposure conditions or if the thermometers were even in shelters at remote California desert stations back in the 1880s and 1890s. The previous hottest April day in Death Valley was 111°F. Yesterday, the high temperature in Death Valley "cooled off" to 110°F, merely the fourth highest April temperature ever measured there. The heat wave peaked Sunday and Monday, and temperatures will be closer to normal for the remainder of the week.
Figure 1. All-time heat records for the month of April were set at 56 stations April 21 - 23, including at seven major cities. Image taken from wunderground's new extremes page.
As is often the case when a major Nor'easter is affecting the Eastern U.S., the record-breaking heat is due to a contortion of the jet stream that has created a strong ridge of high pressure over the Western U.S. Wunderground's extremes page lists 56 stations in the West in the past four days that have tied or broken all-time heat records for the month of April, including:
Phoenix, Arizona: 105°F (previous 105° April temperatures occurred on 4/20/1989 and 4/29/1992)
Las Vegas, Nevada: 99°F (tying old record set 4/30/1981)
Reno, NV: 90° (old record 89° 4/30/1981)
Elko, NV: 87° (old record 86° 4/30/1981). This also beat the previous so-warm-so-early-in-the-season record by 4°
Ely, NV: 84° (old record 82° 4/28/1992)
Winnemucca, NV: 90° (tying old record set 4/30/1981)
Grand Junction, CO: 89° (tying all-time April record also set on 4/29 and 4/30, 1992)
Boise, ID (91°) and Salt Lake City (88°) both came within 1°F of their record April max.
Figure 2. A late-season Nor'easter on April 23, 2012 leaves heavy snow on a farm in Penfield, NY. Image credit: wunderphotographer tvsportsguy.
Late-season Nor'easter winding down
The powerful late-season Nor'easter that brought snow, high winds, and heavy rains to the Northeast yesterday is winding down as it moves northwestwards into Canada. The storm brought an unusual amount of snow for so late in the season to western Pennsylvania, western New York, and the higher elevations in West Virginia. An earlier report posted by the NWS of 23.7” at Laurel Summit, Pennsylvania (elevation 2,770’) has now been scaled back to just 13.7”, according to the latest NWS Storm Summary. Many other higher-elevation locations saw snowfall amounts in the 6 - 12 inch range. Snow amounts were considerably lower in the major cities of the region; Buffalo, New York got 0.9", Rochester, New York, 2.8", and Erie, Pennsylvania, 0.5". The wet, heavy snow fell on regions where trees had already come into leaf, thanks to the surprise "Summer in March" heat wave that brought 80° temperatures to the Northeast over a month ago. High winds that accompanied the heavy snow caused extensive tree damage and power outages to at least 75,000 people in the region. However, the storm may have done more good than harm--widespread rainfall amounts of 2 - 4 inches occurred across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Southeast New York, which is under moderate to severe drought. Rainfall deficits in the region were generally 5 - 10 inches, so the Nor'easter's rains will make a significant dent in the drought. Wunderground's weather historian Christopher C. Burt has updated his post on Record Late Season Snowfalls with information from this storm.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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nice shot of the south the deep south
good night pedley
There are two solutions, or rather two families of solutions. One has the house at the north pole, in which case "south" is at first a completely arbitrary direction. The other solution has the house at a distance of 10+5/π miles away from the south pole. In that case, the westward leg traces out a small circle all the way around the pole.
Back to the subject of Dr. Masters' post: it may be hot in Death Valley and Las Vegas, but it's not hot at all on the Southern California coast, which really isn't very far away. Not only that, it's rained recently, and it may rain again in the next day or two - that's really getting quite late in the year to have any rain at all. Almost all of the rain on the coast comes from cold-core extratropical systems, and it's pretty hard to get such a system to have any punch this far south this late in the spring.
Rather, they are the short sighted imaginations of a terror far greater than any religion could conceive.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL
408 AM EDT WED APR 25 2012
AMZ550-552-555-570-572-575-FLZ041-044>047-053-054 -058-059-064-141-
144-147-252200-
COASTAL WATERS FROM FLAGLER BEACH TO VOLUSIA BREVARD COUNTY LINE
OUT 20 NM-
COASTAL WATERS FROM VOLUSIA BREVARD COUNTY LINE TO SEBASTIAN
INLET OUT 20 NM-
COASTAL WATERS FROM SEBASTIAN INLET TO JUPITER INLET OUT 20 NM-
WATERS FROM FLAGLER BEACH TO VOLUSIA BREVARD COUNTY LINE 20 TO
60 NM OFFSHORE-
WATERS FROM VOLUSIA BREVARD COUNTY LINE TO SEBASTIAN INLET 20 TO
60 NM OFFSHORE-
WATERS FROM SEBASTIAN INLET TO JUPITER INLET 20 TO 60 NM OFFSHORE-
INLAND VOLUSIA-NORTHERN LAKE-ORANGE-SEMINOLE-SOUTHERN BREVARD-
OSCEOLA-INDIAN RIVER-OKEECHOBEE-ST. LUCIE-MARTIN-COASTAL VOLUSIA-
SOUTHERN LAKE-NORTHERN BREVARD-
408 AM EDT WED APR 25 2012
THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA.
.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT.
.FIRE WEATHER IMPACT...
A PERSISTENT DRY AIRMASS AND WARMING TEMPERATURES WILL BRING LOW
RH VALUES ACROSS MOST OF EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA TODAY. WINDS WILL BE
LIGHTER THAN EARLIER THIS WEEK AROUND 10 MPH OR LESS. A RED FLAG
WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR ALL OF EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA EXCEPT MARTIN
AND SAINT LUCIE COUNTIES. ACROSS THESE COUNTIES...THE SEA BREEZE
WILL PUSH INLAND EARLIER AND LIMIT MINIMUM RELATIVE HUMIDITY
VALUES. A FIRE DANGER STATEMENT IS IN EFFECT FOR THESE TWO COUNTIES.
.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...THURSDAY THROUGH TUESDAY.
SOUTHERLY FLOW WILL SLOWLY MOISTEN THE ATMOSPHERE THROUGH THE
REMAINDER OF THE WEEK WITH RH VALUES EXPECTED TO DROP TO AROUND 35
PERCENT ACROSS THE INTERIOR THURSDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOON.
A SLIGHT CHANCE FOR SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL RETURN TO THE
AREA FROM SATURDAY THROUGH EARLY NEXT WEEK WITH THE BEST CHANCES
ACROSS THE SOUTHERN HALF OF THE REGION.
.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...
SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY.
$$
MOSES
12 Day 0Z GFS precip Accum.
Is a lot better than this Day 3, don't you think?
On the surface of a sphere:
The geodesic is the Great Circle.
Any two points on the exact opposite sides from each other have an infinite number of straight lines connecting those points.
Less than opposite, two points have two straight lines connecting to each other; the shortest possible route, and the long route.
On a spinning sphere:
Looking down toward the north pole means that the viewer is seeing the sphere spin counterclockwise.
Eastward is counterclockwise, westward is clockwise.
The only geodesic on a spinning sphere that runs west-to-east is the equator.
In order to travel straight southward for a given distance then travel straight westward for the same given distance, the equator must be located that same given distance from the poles.
If that given distance is eg 10miles, the sphere's circumference must be 40miles.
One can travel constantly eg westward on a line of constant curvature by following any line of latitude... but constantly westward isn't straight westward except at the equator.
I think this is supposed to be the retrogressing trough / front system that came through FL this past weekend. Our mets were forecasting that it would begin to do that starting tomorrow.
Maybe that front was the beginning of the rainy season after all....
Referencing also post 271, showing current conditions.
It's looking that way but here in C FL it may be awhile before this rain heads our way as this trough appears it wants to head toward the general area of the NW Bahamas and sit for awhile. That's why whether this becomes Alberto or not is irrelevant as Gale force conditions and heavy squally rains are on tap for all the Bahama islands over the coming days.
Looks like the GFS has delayed it's arrival to the following weekend (5th-6th) which is good news for me(I'm on vacation).
Yeah it appears it is going to be messy for S FL & the Bahamas for many days to come. Looks like this trough is going retrograde toward the NW Bahamas then stop and sit for awhile.
Please hold true to form....please.
Also, NWS Birmingham is having a webinar about the April 27 tornadoes for all who are interested:
Link
no ;)
ECMF has been the closest lately on the 2 week mojo forecast:
It has neutral for the next 2 weeks:
Regards !
We are changing, not harming, remember at one time the North Pole was subtropical, last time I checked Polar Bears still live at the North Pole, in the wild.
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