Baby lambs lounge in the fresh green grass, as their mom keeps close track. Late season cold temps set back the grass growth in the area, though it's coming on strong in recent days.
If the growth of fields and lawns seems a bit behind this year, there's good reason for the delay - Broadus hit three record lows during the month of April. On April 3rd, the mercury fell to -1, on the 13th the low was 10, and on the 14th the low was 12 degrees. The unseasonably low temps set back plant growth, though seasonably average temps later in the month promoted growth.
The -1 recording on April 3rd was only the second time on record that a below zero reading was recorded in April, in Broadus. The first occurrence took place on April 11th, 1997, when a low of -5 was recorded.
The high for the month of April, 2020, came on the last day of the month, with a temperature of 82 recorded at the courthouse.
The average high for the month sat at 57.4, down from an average of 60.7, while the average low of 42.7 was also below the average low of 46.2.
Another area in which we fell below average in April: precipitation. A meager .55" of moisture fell on Broadus in April, most in the form of three separate snow storms early in the month. The average precip during the month of April is 1.64", so we were just over an inch behind normal for the month.
As of May 1, our total precipitation for the year is 1.77", compared to a normal of 3.45" from Jan 1 to May 1.
In other stations around the area, the story was much the same as Broadus. At the Moorhead 9 miles NE station, the total precip for the month was .50", compared to a normal 1.39". The majority of that moisture fell as snow, with 7" in total on the month.
The low for the Moorhead station came on April 3rd, at -3, with the high falling on the 29th and 30th, at 78 degrees both days.
At the Powderville 8 miles NNE station, the low also fell on April 3rd, at -1, with a high of 77 on both the 29th and 30th. This station had more moisture than those to the south, recording .84" on the month, compared to an average of 1.48". The highest amount fell on April 11th, with .62".
The Sonnette 7 miles SW station had a low for the month of -4, with the high for the month of 69 falling on the 10th and 21st, though data was missing from the 25th through the end of the month, when the monthly highs took place in other reaches of the county.
The monthly total for precip was .72" compared to an average of 1.69", though the missing days may have also affected this data.
The Biddle 8 miles SW station recorded the lowest temp from an official weather station in the county during the month of April, with a low of -7 on April 3rd. The recording that day was the second below zero temp on record for the station in April, with a low of -3 in 2002. In 1997, the mercury fell to zero. Data for this station goes back to October of 1963.
The high for this month was 79, on April 30th.
In April of this year, 6.0" of snowfall was recorded at the Biddle SW station, compared to an average of 6.4".
The .60" of precip on the month was far below the average of 1.70".
Reader Comments(0)