April 2026

[donsutherland1]

Temperatures approached and reached record levels across parts of the region. Records included:

Baltimore: 91° (old record: 88°, 1941)
Bridgeport: 82° (old record: 81°, 1960)
Hartford: 87° (old record: 88°, 1941)
Islip: 81° (old record: 78°, 2002, 2024)
New York City-Central Park:  90° (old record: 87°, 1941)
New York City-LaGuardia Airport: 88° (old record: 86°, 1941)
Newark: 91°(old record: 88°, 1960)
Philadelphia: 91° (old record: 88°, 1941)
Washington, DC: 90° (old record: 89°, 1941)
White Plains: 87° (old record: 83°, 1960)

Tomorrow will be another summerlike day. Temperatures will likely peak in the upper 80s in most of the region. The hot spots could approach or reach 90°. Long Island will be cooler with highs peaking in the 70s due to onshore breezes. 

Following the bout of early season heat, readings will return to the 70s to end the week and start the weekend. It will turn cooler on Sunday. A sharp cold shot is possible early next week.

Generally dry conditions will also persist through at least Friday.

The ENSO Region 1+2 anomaly was +1.5°C and the Region 3.4 anomaly was +0.2°C for the week centered around April 8. For the past six weeks, the ENSO Region 1+2 anomaly has averaged +1.30°C and the ENSO Region 3.4 anomaly has averaged +0.07°C. Neutral ENSO conditions will continue through at least mid-spring.

The SOI was -9.45 yesterday. 

The preliminary Arctic Oscillation (AO) was -0.814 today. 

Based on sensitivity analysis applied to the latest guidance, there is an implied near 83% probability that New York City will have a warmer than normal April (1991-2020 normal). April will likely finish with a mean temperature near 56.3° (2.6° above normal). 

Supplemental Information: The projected mean would be 3.3° above the 1981-2010 normal monthly value. 

 

[doncat]

90° here today after am low of 64°. Halfway thru month just 0.43" of rain.

[MANDA]

1 hour ago, Picard said:

I'm fully prepared for a spring, summer, and fall of storms firing off well north and west and not making it here.  Already we've had two days of some media hype about storms with little to nothing to show in every location in the forum.  I'm watching that line out in western PA, and things are always possible, but it's likely to be a miss or fizzled out to sprinkles by the time any of it gets here.  

Our area might get lucky with something later on tonight.  Further east chances less.

Picked up .24” from lasts nights stuff.  I did sprinkle the grass seed earlier so I am not overly confident we get anything later.

 

 

 

[JerseyWx]

Mid 80's still in NYC at this hour, in mid-april, is nuts.

 

Hoping those storms in PA make it here.  Had a nice downpour last night.

[donsutherland1]

With today's 90° high in Central Park, 2026 became only the third year on record with a high of 80° or above in March and a high of 90° or above in April. The only prior years were 1977 and 1990.

[jm1220]

Some distant lightning visible here from storms in CT. Too bad not a chance in hell any reach me. 

[LongBeachSurfFreak]

Mid 80's still in NYC at this hour, in mid-april, is nuts.
 
Hoping those storms in PA make it here.  Had a nice downpour last night.

I could see just west of the city getting clipped. South and east of there not so much


.

[Brian5671]

Torrential thunderstorm here...lots of lightning

[Santa Claus]

too warm inside, having trouble sleeping.  usually not a problem in mid-april

[SnoSki14]

Very high launching pad this morning. 66F now, low 70s in NYC and surrounding areas which is incredible for this time of year. 

[bluewave]

19 hours ago, jm1220 said:

Plus if we have a trough sitting in that location we’ll be socked in low clouds on east wind struggling to get to 50. 

Yeah, we may get one of our famous spring cut-off low patterns.

 

 

[FPizz]

4 hours ago, SnoSki14 said:

Very high launching pad this morning. 66F now, low 70s in NYC and surrounding areas which is incredible for this time of year. 

Got to 61 here last night, but already at 78.  Glad the a/c is working well!

[SACRUS]

yesterday 4/15 Highs
 

EWR: 91
PHL: 91
NYC: 90
TEB: 90
ACY: 90
New Brnswck: 90
BLM: 90
LGA: 88
TTN: 88
HPN: 87
JFK: 79
ISP: 79

[SACRUS]

81 / 58 some clouds peak heat continues today.  Fall back Friday and the weekend.  Front through Sunday then a period of near to below normal overall with trough nearby the NE onshore flow backing middle of next week.  Overall the peiord 4/20 - 4/28 looking cooler and we'll see how much of the rain / showers can add up to.

 

[SACRUS]

 

Records:

Highs:

EWR: 92 (2002)
NYC: 92 (2002)
LGA: 89 (2002)
JFK: 86 (2003)


Lows:

EWR: 26 (1943)
NYC: 29 (1928)
LGA: 31 (1943)
JFK: 32 (2014)


Historical:
 

1849: Charleston, South Carolina recorded their latest freeze ever with a temperature of 32 degrees while 6 inches of snow fell at Wilmington, North Carolina. Snow fell as far south as Milledgeville, Georgia. A damaging hard freeze occurred from Texas to Georgia devastating the cotton crop. 

 

1851: "The Lighthouse Storm" of 1851 struck New England on this date. Heavy gales and high seas pounded the coasts of New Hampshire and eastern Massachusetts. The storm arrived at the time of a full moon, and high tide was producing unusually high storm tides. The storm was so named because it destroyed the lighthouse at Cohasset, Massachusetts. Two assistant lighthouse keepers were killed there when the structure was swept away by the storm tide.

1851 - The famous "Lighthouse Storm" raged near Boston Harbor. Whole gales and gigantic waves destroyed Minot Light with its two keepers still inside. The storm resulted in great shipping losses and coastal erosion. (David Ludlum)

1880 - A tornado near Marshall, MO, carried the heavy timbers of an entire home a distance of twelve miles. (The Weather Channel)

1933 - Franklin Lake, NH, was buried under 35 inches of snow. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)

1960 - A wind gust of 70 mph was measured at the Stapleton International Airport in Denver CO, their highest wind gust of record. (The Weather Channel)

1987 - A slow moving storm system produced heavy rain over North Carolina and the Middle Atlantic Coast States. More than six inches of rain drenched parts of Virginia, and flooding in Virginia claimed three lives. Floodwaters along the James River inundated parts of Richmond VA. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

1988 - A storm in the northeastern U.S. produced a foot of snow at Pittsburg VT. Severe thunderstorms produced baseball size hail and spawned five tornadoes in the Southern High Plains Region. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

1989 - A cold front, ushering sharply colder air into the north central U.S., brought snow to parts of Montana and North Dakota. At midday the temperature at Cutbank MT was just 22 degrees. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

1990 - Thunderstorms developing along a stationary front produced large hail and damaging winds across Oklahoma, with 99 reports of large hail and damaging winds during the evening and early nighttime hours. Thunderstorms produced baseball size hail south of Carney, and wind gusts to 100 mph in the Oklahoma City area which swept away many Federal tax returns being transported from a mail cart to a waiting truck about the time of the midnight deadline. Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City reported a record wind gust of 92 mph. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

2002: High temperature records were shattered in many cities across the East and Midwest as spring turned into summer over much of the United States. This followed on the heels of many records that fell the day before across the Plains and Midwest. The abnormal heat was the result of a jet stream pushed way to the north. In stark contrast, the West had temperatures below normal with snow falling in some of the mountainous regions. Cooke City, MT reported 10 inches while 9 inches fell at Roundup, MT and 8 inches at Billings, MT. (Ref. Wilson Wx. History)

2007: Albany, NewYork: Albany, NewYork: An intense nor'easter raging along the New England Coast causes the barometric pressure reading at Albany to to fall to 28.84 inches of mercury, the lowest barometric pressure reading ever recorded in April in the Empire State's capital city. (Ref. WxDoctor)

2011: Eleven tornadoes touched down in the Wakefield, VA NWS warning area on April 16th. Unfortunately, there were some deaths from these touchdowns, 12 in Bertie County, NC and 2 in Gloucester County, VA, both EF3 tornadoes. Significant tornadoes also struck parts of central North Carolina (outside our area). See the following link for details: Virginia Tornadoes Events by NWS at Wakefield,VA

[jm1220]

2 hours ago, bluewave said:

Yeah, we may get one of our famous spring cut-off low patterns.

 

 

This time of year it’s only a matter of when and how much we’re paying for a summer like stretch like this. 

[Brian5671]

5 minutes ago, jm1220 said:

This time of year it’s only a matter of when and how much we’re paying for a summer like stretch like this. 

The good news is that this is one week w/o that crap-sometimes the whole month is lost to BDCF/east flow

[Rjay]

1 hour ago, SACRUS said:

yesterday 4/15 Highs
 

EWR: 91
PHL: 91
NYC: 90
TEB: 90
ACY: 90
New Brnswck: 90
BLM: 90
LGA: 88
TTN: 88
HPN: 87
JFK: 79
ISP: 79

ISP hit 81

[dWave]

12 hours ago, donsutherland1 said:

With today's 90° high in Central Park, 2026 became only the third year on record with a high of 80° or above in March and a high of 90° or above in April. The only prior years were 1977 and 1990.

Tiny sample size, but I wonder how the summers in those years turned out.  I know '77 was the year with the brutal heatwave and legendary blackout.