April weather summary--cool, wet

This will not come as a surprise to anyone living in Decorah: the month of April was cool and wet.

Decorah weather observer Richard Bernatz says the city received 7.21 inches of precipitation in April.  Even by the usual standards of springtime rain, it was a wet April.  Bernatz says we normally get 3.11 inches of precipitation in April, meaning April of 2013 was twice as wet as normal.  In fact, only two Aprils have received more rain in 120 years of record keeping.

All that rain kept temperatures cool.  April averaged 43.2 degrees, which is 4.1 degrees less than normal.  Compared with April 2013, 101 Aprils were warmer and 17 were cooler in 119 years of temperature record keeping.