April Snow in Parts of the Deep South !

[Anonymous]

Very interesting weather lately - a high of only 39 in Alabama yesterday ? Wow that's very impressive this time of year. It was quite chilly here in CHAS too early today - wind-chill in the 30's. Very impressive with the 850 showing the 0C line deep into the south:

AccuWeather Extreme/Severe Weather Summary, April 13th,2004:

April Snow in Parts of the Deep South
An incredible storm system moved across the Deep South today, producing April snow in parts of western Tennessee and Kentucky. About 3.5 inches accumulated in Jackson, Tennessee, obliterating the previous April snowfall record of only 0.3 of an inch set on April 5, 1971. It was also the latest snowfall ever recorded at Jackson, beating the record from 1971. Even parts of Alabama received some snow; Huntsville, Alabama, also set a record for latest snowfall. Widespread snowfall totals of 1-6 inches were reported across western Tennessee, western and northern Kentucky, southern Indiana and southwestern Ohio today.



WEATHER HIGHLIGHTS BY ACCU WEATHER


Today marks the latest measurable snowfall on record in Jackson,
Tennessee. Previous to today's snow event, the latest measurable
snowfall in Jackson occurred on April 5, 1971. The 3.5 inches of snow
Jackson received is also the record daily snowfall for the month of
April.
Bridgeport, Conn., set the record rainfall for today with 2.82 inches
of rain since midnight. This shattered the old record of 1.72 inches
from 1972.
Todays high temperature in Muscle Shoals, Ala., reached only 46
degrees. This was the coldest high temperature ever recorded for
April 13.
Huntsville, Ala., had a few snowflakes mix in with the rain showers
today. This marks the latest snow ever officially recorded in
Huntsville.
Rainfall amounts Today across the Northeast:

Bridgeport, Conn. 2.82
Islip, N.Y. 3.56
New York City (Central Park) 1.20"
Philadelphia, Pa. 0.79
Hartford, Conn. 1.78
Atlantic City, N.J. 1.69
Westhampton Beach, N.Y. 3.41
Providence, R.I. 1.60
Belmar, N.J. 1.62
Boston, Mass. 1.20






Additional info today:

Muscle Shoals, AL reported SNOW April 13th, according to AccuWeather chief meteorologist Joe Bastardi. Snow also fell in the Carolina Mountains. Snow also fell in western Kentucky. Cincinnati reportedly had an inch or two as well.


Some additional info:

"Best winter in recent memory" for European ski resorts - April 8, 2004: As the European ski season comes to a close, resorts are reporting the best winter in recent memory, with record levels of snow across the Alps and the Pyrenees. "We have had the best season ever," said Wolfgang Breitfuss, tourism director of Saalbach-Hinterglemm.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3600019.stm


Extreme cold in Ukraine and Crimea - April 7, 2004: Temperatures plummeted to -16 Celsius (3 F), killing off much of the regions fruit crops. Severe frosts last winter, followed by a summer drought, had already devastated thousand of hectares of Winter and Spring crops.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/news ... news.shtml

Winter in April ? You Bet !!!

Ken

[Stormsfury]

Definitely an amazing feat for this time of year induced by a full latitude trough and impressive cold-core h5 low and SFC low. Fairly steep lapse rates and quite cold h85 temps contributed to the unseasonable heavy snowfall in these locations ...

Several of the model guidance outputs indicated the thickness schemes would support snow, but considering the prior busts, I did not mention this possibility a few days before the event feeling I might have been setting myself up for another bust (and also I was more concerned about the severe weather/heavy rain potential in the Southeast and East).

A deformation zone set up behind the h5 low which enahnced the precipitation which allowed for the dragging down (tapping) of the very cold core pool aloft.

Remarkable event.

EDIT: Just found this ... some remarkable feats in April ...

April 2nd, 1915 - 10 inches of snow at Raleigh NC (record for April).

April 2nd-5th, 1987 - Record cold in Florida. 48 at Key West was a record by 13 degrees. 31 at Tallahassee. A late-season snowstorm set many snow records from parts of the South to eastern Ohio. NC's state storm record of 60" was set at Newfound Gap. (Tied 5 years later on May 7th-9th, 1992 at Mt. Pisgah). Alabama records set for April: 6" at Birmingham (3rd) and Mobile's first time snow flurries (3rd).

April 5th, 1849 - 3 inches of snow in Columbia SC fell two weeks later than any previous record late freeze.

April 13th, 1857 - Parts of Alabama received a surprise 4-inch dusting of snow in a late season snow and frost in the year that saw April snow in every state in the United States.

April 16th, 1849 - A severe freeze killed cotton from Texas into Georgia. Snow covered the ground at Charleston, SC.

April 25th, 1910 - Snow has been reported only once in Florida in April. However, a few flakes which is officially a trace of snow were observed at Pensacola. This record is more amazing since the snowflakes fell near the end of the month and not the beginning.

SF

[Anonymous]

Yep Mike I noticed this coming 5 days ago, when the h85 0c line was forecast over SW Texas, then models retreated this slightly further north. Nevertheless, the 0C h85 temps were very impressive this morning, all the way down to North Fl around this impressive cold core h50 low. And yes, I remember the 1987 snow outbreak in the Apalachians - I remember some areas getting over 4 feet in the NC/TN mountains ! That was a record.............

In addition, a record freeze hit the SE states on April 18th, 1983 - CHAS reportedly had a record low of 28 F.

[Stormsfury]

Yep Mike I noticed this coming 5 days ago, when the h85 0c line was forecast over SW Texas, then models retreated this slightly further north. Nevertheless, the 0C h85 temps were very impressive this morning, all the way down to North Fl around this impressive cold core h50 low. And yes, I remember the 1987 snow outbreak in the Apalachians - I remember some areas getting over 4 feet in the NC/TN mountains ! That was a record.............

In addition, a record freeze hit the SE states on April 18th, 1983 - CHAS reportedly had a record low of 28 F.

Amazingly, the ECMWF analysis at 12z today placed a -5ºC minimum just west of Savannah, GA, and a very impressive cold core pool across the South (where the hell was this all winter, or more specific, the last best chance of snow in March with the 1000-500mb thickness schemes well within snow parameters? Typical Coastal Carolina bad luck...)



I was looking through the daily and monthly records for Charleston, SC (which BTW, some are clearly not up to date, including the all-time record high of 105º set August 1st, 1999...) and found this ... The April 18th daily record is 35 set in 2001. April 20th, 1983 - a daily record low of 31º.

[Aslkahuna]

to your April Anomalies

April 1999- snow in suburbs of Phoenix Arizona, on Easter Sunday the 4th, snow fell in parts of Tucson as well with snow and blowing snow recorded in Cochise County during a noontime frontal passage. Temperatures the next morning fell into the teens and low 20's in Cochise County devastating the fruit crop with losses of over 90%. Vegetable crops were also lost and home gardeners lost many trees and plants.

Steve

[michsnowfreak]

Those were some neat April snow stats!

[Aslkahuna]

1995 we had rain and snow mixed here at the house during a nighttime frontal passage. The earliest snow recorded here at the house was in October 1996.

Steve

[Anonymous]

Yep Mike you can definitely call that Carolina bad luck ! This setup with the cold core low should have happened back in January when we experienced all the cold rains here and ice just inland from the coastal areas ! -5C is very impressive this late in the season for Savannah,GA at h85. Why always so late ???


Correction that record in 1983 April was the 20th, but I do remember Mt.Pleasant at 28 degrees with heavy frost that morning just before sunrise. I had two bulb thermometers reading 28 degrees that morning. Now that's cold for so late in the season ! Even 31F is impressive at the airport.

Snow in Phoenix on April 4th ? wow - another impressive very late season snow for the desert !