Extreme Weather Watch: Records Set as Flooding in Midwest Takes Its Toll

By John Lawrence

There was definitely a lot of extreme weather in the Month of April as records were set for rainfall, snowfall, flooding and low temperatures and the month is not even over yet!

However, none of it occurred in sunny San Diego so we should appreciate how lucky we are.

In Rapid City, S.D. April 2013 is the snowiest month on record with 39.5 inches. This beats the previous April and all-time monthly snow record of 38.5 inches set in April 1927.

For Duluth, Minn. April 2013 is the snowiest month on record with 50.8 inches. This breaks the previous all-time monthly snow record of 50.1 inches set in November 1991. April’s snow total is more than Duluth saw all of last winter!

Bismarck, N.D. had the snowiest April on record with 21.5 inches, mostly from Winter Storm Xerxes. This beats the previous April snow record of 18.7 inches set in April 1984. Pierre, S.D. had the snowiest April on record with 20.8 inches. Previous record was 17.5 inches set in April 1986.

For several cities in the Midwest, this April will go down as one of the wettest in history. In fact, the four cities listed below have recorded their all-time wettest April in 2013.

Chicago, Ill. had 8.54 inches of precipitation. Previous record was 8.33 inches in 1947. In Milwaukee, Wis. there was 7.36 inches of precipitation. Previous record was 7.31 inches in 1973. Grand Rapids, Mich. had 10.41 inches of precipitation. Previous record was 8.29 inches in 1909. And then there was Dubuque, Iowa which had 8.50 inches of precipitation. Previous record was 7.80 inches in 1896.

Heavy rainfall in the Midwest from April 17-18 resulted in massive flooding in parts of Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, southern Wisconsin and Michigan. Around 20 river gauges in the region saw record flooding.

In Illinois records were set by the Illinois River at Peoria, Henry, Morris, Ottawa and LaSalle; Rock River at Moline and Byron; Lamoine River at Ripley and Colmar; Fox River at McHenry Lock and Dam and Algonquin Tailwater; Des Plaines River at Des Plaines and Riverside; Vermilion River at Leonore; East Branch River at Bolingbrook; Spoon River at Seville; North Branch Chicago River at Chicago.

In Iowa the English River flooded at Kalona. In Michigan the Grand River flooded at Comstock Park and Grand Rapids.

There was record coldness for this late in the year in several places.

International Falls, Minn. – Recorded a low of just 4 degrees on the morning of April 20. In records dating back to 1897, it’s never been this cold before this deep into April.

Baton Rouge, La. – The low temperature bottomed out at 39 degrees on the morning of April 20. This was the lowest temperature ever recorded this far into the spring season.

Sheridan, Wyo. – Saw a bone-chilling low of -1 on the morning of April 23 after Winter Storm Zeus passed through. This beat the previous record low for April 23 by a full 23 degrees. This was also the coldest low temperature ever recorded this far into April.

Amarillo, Texas – The cold air mass that followed behind Winter Storm Zeus dropped the low temperature to 21 degrees on April 24. This is the coldest Amarillo has been this late in the season in records dating back to 1892.

Fargo, N.D. – The first 50-degree temperature reading of the year will occur after April 17 for the first time in history.

Lincoln, Neb. – Their morning low of 22 degrees on April 24 was the coldest temperature so late in the spring, there.

Statistics courtesy of the Weather Channel.

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John Lawrence

John Lawrence graduated from Georgia Tech, Stanford and University of California at San Diego. While at UCSD, he was one of the original writer/workers on the San Diego Free Press in the late 1960s. He founded the San Diego Jazz Society in 1984 which had grants from the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and presented both local and nationally known jazz artists. John received a Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego chapter, 2014 award. His website is Social Choice and Beyond which exemplifies his interest in Economic Democracy. His book is East West Synthesis. He also blogs at Will Blog For Food. He can be reached at j.c.lawrence@cox.net.