(Radio Iowa) – April had plenty of showers at times, but state climatologist Justin Glisan says overall precipitation for the month was near normal. “We’re coming in about three-point-four (3.4) inches of precipitation, and that’s about three-tenths of an inch below average. So, near normal across much of the state, drier conditions eastern, and then across portions of southern Iowa,” Glisan says. Residents of portions of northern Iowa will tell you the April showers were anything but normal.

“From north central into northeastern Iowa, stations up that way were anywhere from two to four inches above average. Some stations around Cedar Rapids and Waterloo had a month’s worth of precipitation within a seven-day period towards the end of the month,” he says.” Glisan says those areas were balanced out in the statewide average by the drier areas. Glisan says April was just a little warmer than normal when statewide readings are calculated.

(Map from the Department of Ag Climatological Bureau.)

“About a degree above average for the statewide average temperature. Now you look where we had more rainfall, more cloud cover, that northeastern corner, they were near average. And then slightly warmer conditions across southern Iowa, and that meshes well with drier conditions, more sunshine,”Glisan says.

Glisan says we had two big storm events in April, including one with a lot of hail, but there were no serious issues with either storm.