Another 0.45" this morning boosted my April total to 5.39". This is the most rain I've received in the first half of April in the last twenty years. Only four years in that period have full-month April totals higher than this year's first half.
Another day, another soaker. I picked up 0.57" of rain this afternoon/evening. More rain is coming as early as Monday night, but especially Tuesday/Wednesday, then a good event Friday night. Wet, wet, wet.
The ensembles continue to show 2.5-3" of rain across the area over the next two weeks. That's great as we head into the warm season, but it's a problem for the construction crew that has to re-grade the new stormwater wetland next to my house and then plant seed.
My area did not quite get the 3+" of rain shown on the ensembles earlier in the week, but I'm happy with 2.30". Now we get to deal with four days of cold before the warmth and action returns.
The 5-minute obs show that Cedar Rapids did hit 90º today. CR's previous record first 90º day was April 10th, 1930. We smashed it by three weeks.
Update: Despite the intra-hour measurements, the official high is showing as 89º as we didn't quite hit 90º. The intra-hour measurements are apparently rounded up.
Cedar Rapids has risen from 50º to 74º in four hours. We are now a few degrees ahead of the HRRR, which is forecasting 86º in a few hours. It is already 82º in Des Moines.
I took ~90 measurements in a grid across my backyard and came up with 3.0", which seems about right considering the drifts and scoured areas. The gauge caught 0.40", which means the ratio is terrible, as it always is when the wind is strong. The kuchera map predicted a ratio well above 10.
This stuff was a major pain to clean up. It's dense, with a layer of either wet snow or ice on the bottom.