As we expected, April was the warmest on record for Tampa, St. Petersburg and Lakeland.
Sarasota/Bradenton equalied a record set in 1945.
After a cooler than normal start to the year, the warmth really kicked in around March 1. Except for a few cooler than normal days in late March and one normal day in late April, every day has been above normal for about two months.
The pattern of troughs and cold fronts in the eastern U.S. earlier in the year stopped for Florida in March. Warmth built as the upper-level pattern kept much of the Midwest and East cool, but didn’t allow cold fronts to make much of an impact in Florida. There were no extremes, with no daily high temperatures broken. It was just a daily average over above normal temperatures that persisted for each day, except yesterday, that allowed the record to be broken.
Tampa Top 5 Warmest Aprils
1. 78.0 2015
2. 76.8 1991
3. 76.6 1947
4. 76.4 1908
5. 76.3 2011 & 2012
St. Petersburg Top 5 Warmest Aprils
1. 78.6 2015
2. 77.1 1945
3. 77.0 2011
4. 77.0 1947
5. 76.9 2002
Lakeland Top 5 Warmest Aprils
1. 772. 2015
2. 76.5 1991
3. 76.3 1994
4. 76.2 1922
5. 76.1 2011
Sarasota/Bradenton Top 5 Warmest Aprils
1. 75.9 2015 (TIE)
2. 75.9 1945
3. 75.1 1994
4. 74.9 1991
5. 74.6 2002
6. 74.6 1947
April was also wet with above normal rainfall in Tampa. Rainfall was 4.82 inches, which is 2.79 inches above normal. But St. Petersburg only had 1.82 inches of rain, which is a little below normal. Lakeland had 2.74 inches, which is almost exactly normal. Sarasota/Bradenton only had 1.66 inches of rain which is about 0.75 inches below normal.