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This Week's Weather

Cornell University Forecast Project

The National Drought Mitigation Center

Year in Review

2007

April Weather

Average High Temperature: 55.7°F
Record High Temperature: 92°F (the 28th, 1990)
Average Low Temperature: 34.9°F
Record Low Temperature: 9°F (the 7th, 1972)
Average Precipitation: 3.39" inches
Maximum Precipitation: 8.12" (1976)
Minimum Precipitation: 1.22" (1985)
Average Snowfall: 4.8"
Record Snowfall: 16.4" (1983)
Least Snowfall: 0" (1998 & 1999)

On April 3rd and 4th of 2003, a storm covered everything with an inch of ice! The average high temperature takes another big jump this month, from 49°F on the 1st, to 62°F on the 30th.

However, don't get too excited as April is also our most schizophrenic month weather-wise.

While we can have multiple stretches of three, or four, or even five glorious warm, sunny days this month, it's just as likely that entire month will be cloudy, breezy, damp and chilly, complete with spits of snow - and even an ice storm (at right, above). In other words, April can be absolutely miserable - especially in those years when March teases us with some nice, spring-like weather!

With this in mind, don't be too anxious to get out and start digging in the garden - especially if the soil is wet, as that can lead to dense clods of soil that will be hard as rock when they finally do dry out.

While waiting for the soil in your lawn, landscape and garden to dry this month, make sure all of your tools are clean and razor sharp!Often, the best thing you can do this month is finish getting all of your tools cleaned up and their edges honed to a razor's edge. You can also prune summer-flowering shrubs such as roses, potentilla, rose-of-Sharon and spirea, and cut back, divide and transplant perennials and ornamental grasses. And, you can get a month's head-start on dramatic summer blooms by potting up canna rhizomes, and tubers of dahlias (at right, below), calla lilies and tuberous begonias. You can even set them outside on nice, sunny days - just remember to bring them back in at night!

Sprouting dahlia tubers that are potted up and set outside on nice days in April often bloom a month earlier than those planted directly into the garden in May.Finally, as you're sitting inside looking out at another dreary day, take note of those spots where you can add spring-flowering bulbs next fall, so that cold, rainy April days in the future will be a bit brighter!