April 2021 Weather

by Russell Russ

April can have characteristics of both winter and spring. March was unusually pleasant with hardly any snow. April followed with some warmer temperatures, as would be expected, but also had more snowfall, more rainfall, and more cloudy days than March. Even with some snow and many cloudy days, spring did arrive in Norfolk as it usually does in April. 

One April day stood out for its quite wild weather. On April 21, it was 34 degrees in the morning; by early afternoon it was 63 degrees, then a strong cold front with a tornado warning label came through at about 3 p.m. Norfolk only recorded 0.16 inches of rainfall, but there was brief pea-sized hail along with a thunderstorm. This cold front produced two small tornados, one in Kent, CT and another in Amenia, NY. In Norfolk, the temperature dropped 21 degrees in 25 minutes and by 5 p.m. temperatures were in the low 30s and there were snow flurries in the air. Overnight and into the next morning, Norfolk was blanketed with nearly an inch of snow. 

April’s low temperature of 17 degrees was observed on April 3. This tied the 1978 record daily low for that date. The high of 77 degrees was observed on April 28. There were no record daily high temperatures in April. With an average monthly temperature of 45.4 degrees, it was 2.3 degrees above normal. This April was tied with 2012 and 2019 as Norfolk’s 20th warmest April over the last 90 years. Norfolk’s warmest April was in 2010, with 49.4 degrees, and the coldest was in 1943, with 36.8 degrees. 

This station has been recording weather observations for 90 years. For the month of April, over the last 20 years there have been five Aprils ranked in the top ten for warmest. Over the last 20 years there has been one April ranked in the top ten for coldest. 

The total precipitation recorded for the month was 2.87 inches, 1.41 inches below normal. Through April, the total precipitation for the year was 10.64 inches, 5.63 inches below normal. Norfolk’s wettest April was in 1983, with 10.79 inches, the driest was in 1941, with 1.15 inches. April’s snowfall total was 6.0 inches, just 0.1 inch below normal. Although it seemed to be a snowy April, it really was near normal. There have been many Aprils with no snowfall or just a trace of snow; the snowiest April was in 1997 with 31.1 inches.

Through April, the 2021 calendar year snowfall amount of 53.5 inches was 10.9 inches below normal. The 2020-2021 winter season (October-April) snowfall total of 77.6 inches was 11.1 inches below normal, about in the middle of the pack for seasonal snowfall over the last 90 years. Norfolk’s snowiest season was 1955-1956, with 177.4 inches; the least was 2015-2016, with just 35.5 inches.

A look ahead at May’s weather through mid-month showed that temperatures were running about six degrees colder than normal. It was a cool and cloudy first half of May. By the third week of the month it did warm up and a few days with temperatures in the 80s helped bring the monthly average up to near normal. There was no snowfall, but there was a decent amount of rain for a change. As usual, this May transitioned Norfolk from a brown spring look to a green summer look in the span of just a few weeks. 

Weather observations are recorded by the Great Mountain Forest at Norfolk’s National Weather Service Cooperative Weather Observer Station, Norfolk 2SW.