The continuation of cold records being set is quite amazing and when you see lows down to single digits in South Dakota (8° at Huron, latest single digit reading on record!), 12° in Rapid City on April 23, it’s amazing so late in the season. Lows dove back into the 20s all the way into the Texas Panhandle once again this morning with a colder night to come tonight. It may in fact get all the way into the teens across parts of the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles tonight.

As for snow, well both Duluth, Minnesota and Rapid City, South Dakota have not only recorded their snowiest April but also snowiest month on record with 51 and 43.4 inches respectively. The previous record for Duluth was 50.1 inches set back in November 1991 and for Rapid City, that 43.4 inches surpasses what would be considered ‘normal’ during an entire winter which is 41.4″. Rapid City typically recieves 6.1 inches during April, so they’ve seen 679% the normal snow this month… Just astonishing to see these cities smash their all-time snowiest months in APRIL!

According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), a total of 995 snow records have been set during the first 22 days of April, this is compared to a mere 195 for the same time last year. Another interesting stat according to AccuWeather.com is that according to NOAA, 91.9% of the Upper Midwest remains covered by snow, compared to a scant 0.4% as of April 23 last year.

It was another ‘typical frigid night’ during this frigid April right across the Northern and Central Plains as well as across the Rockies.

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Here are the lows set this morning across the nation.

As previously mentioned, while South Dakota saw temperatures plunge into rare single digits, the usual cold spots tucked deep into the Northern Rockies, fell into sub-zero territory. Most nights is seeing Wyoming fall into single digits and sub-zero territory. This morning saw Laramie fall to at least -1° but at Lake Yellowstone, WY, the overnight low fell to an impressive -11°. Subzero lows aren’t overly uncommon late in April but -11° is certainly impressive this late on.

While temperatures soared to a late spring, 92° in Las Vegas, NV, it only ‘wamred’ to 25° in Casper, WY.

Here are expected lows tonight according to the GFS.

It’s quite the temperature rollercoaster for the Texas Panhandle these days as Monday saw highs reach 89° in Amarillo and 124 miles to the south, 92° in Lubbock while the following morning, lows were down into the 20s. Tonight may see low 20s in Amarillo with a few teens in a couple of locations. Mid-20s in Lubbock would be quite amazing this late on.

Big Late Warm-Up!

A major pattern shift comes late this week following another few very cold night all the way to Texas. Ridging finally makes it into the Northern Plains by Friday and the GFS suggests 70s for South Dakota Friday, potentially reaching southern North Dakota on Saturday. With the amount of snow on the ground, it’s going to be interesting how warm it gets but even managing 70s for snowpack this Friday or Saturday would be amazing. Unfortunately this will have major consequences when it comes to flood potential.

Here’s the late GFS 2-metre temperatures expected Saturday afternoon.

The model suggests widespread mid-60s across most of North Dakota and while low 60s is now ‘average’ for the time of year, this year, upper 60s in such cities as Fargo and other even snowier locales is hard to imagine. A heck of a lot of warmth will need to be blowing off the Rockies to help erode the refridgerated low level cold air generated by the unusually expansive and deep snowpack. The highest in Fargo this year remains a numbing 43°, long past it’s latest 50°. Mid-60s I see possible by Saturday but nearer 70°? That would be impressive if we see that.

Here’s the ECMWF upper chart and 850 temps for Sunday, even warmer at 850 than Saturday…

A lot of the heat generated with be thanks to downsloping off the Northern Rockies and Black Hills. Otherwise highs would be restricted considerably due to snow cover. Don’t be surprised if we get near to 80° in Rapid City with major flooding.

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