An incredible late winter/early spring of colder-than-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation continued unabated last week.
Through April 17, Madison had recorded 12.95 inches of liquid equivalent precipitation for the calendar year. That means that 2013 has gotten off to the third wettest start in Madison history. Milwaukee has received 13.15 inches of liquid equivalent this year, also making it the third wettest start to a year.
Both cities trail only 1876 and 1974 in the record books.
As far as temperature goes, Madison is running 4 degrees below normal for April. This is in the wake of a February and March that were 2 degrees and
7.4 degrees colder than normal. A similar set of circumstances has affected Milwaukee where February was 1.8 degrees below normal and March was 5 degrees below the average.
The bottom line is, we are well overdue for the arrival of warmth.
Even Major League Baseball has suffered from the incessant rain, posting an unusually large number of rained-out games in April (13 so far) in an era when the rainout is less likely because of domed stadiums.
The good news is the medium-range forecasts issued by the National Center for Environmental Prediction suggest warmth is coming. It appears that by the end of this week we will finally be looking at bona fide warm spring days.
