The grass is turning green again. Bees are buzzing. Trees and flowers are blooming. It is spring in the Tennessee Valley! And with today starting a new month, it’s time to look at climatology for our local area to get a basic idea of how weather here can behave in the month of April. With the higher sun angle, as you would expect, April is often a warmer month here. The average high temperature for the month as a whole is 74 degrees, with that starting around 70 today and climbing to 78 by the end of the month. Our overnight lows are also on the climb. Our monthly average low temperature is 51-52 degrees, with that still as low as 47 at the beginning of the month and up to 56 as we head out of April and into the start of May. We can have big extremes this time of year though. For instance, the record monthly April high temperature for the Muscle Shoals airport is 97, set back in 1936. The record monthly low for the same location is 24, set in 1940. We CAN see frosts and freezes this time of year occasionally, especially the first half of the month.
With the active spring storm track, we USUALLY see a significant amount of precipitation this time of year. The normal rainfall for the month of April comes in at 4.80″. Believe it or not, every blue moon, wintry precipitation call still be involved this time of year. For example, in 1987 the Muscle Shoals airport in northwest Alabama recorded a half inch accumulation of snow! It’s not often at all we see that happen though!
Historically speaking, severe storms and tornadoes are a significant concern in the Tennessee Valley and surrounding areas in the month of April. Although we can have a tornado at any time of the year, our tornado “season” here runs from November through May, and April is the statistical peak of it. Not only is April far and away the most active month for tornadoes, but historically speaking, it is the most violent. April is the month when large tornado outbreaks are most likely, and April is the month when the large, long-track, violent tornadoes are most likely. For instance, ALL of our local area’s F5/EF5 tornadoes in history have happened in the month of April, and our local area has been directly impacted by TWO separate “super outbreaks” in this month across history. Depending upon personal opinion, there are a couple of other large outbreaks in history (April 20, 1920 as an example) that could fit that definition as well. It’s NOT active and intense here every single April. Some years are quiet during this calendar month in terms of severe storms. This is just a reminder that we have to be alert and prepared!
