Rainiest April ever also the warmest in seven years

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – April is in the books and it was a record-breaking month for rainfall! With records dating back to 1897, April 2024 will go down as the rainiest ever in Fort Wayne’s history.

With a whopping 7.39 inches of precipitation, we bested the previous April record in Fort Wayne by 0.20 inches. 7.19 inches in 1944 was the mark to beat and this is now the fourth April in Fort Wayne’s history with a rainfall total over the seven inch mark. The other years were 2013, 1957, and 1944.

We nearly doubled our average April rainfall of 3.74 inches! We finished 3.65 inches above average and saw two days with rainfall totals over one inch. April 1st was a record-breaking day, as we set a new April 1st daily record rainfall of 1.81 inches, eclipsing the previous record of 1.69 inches set in 1959. Precipitation was also recorded on 17 days this April, only three days behind our record of 20 days set back in 1983.

In fact, April 2024 was the wettest month since August of 2018! 7.77 inches of rain fell that month.

Only a trace of snow was recorded this April, which is 0.8 inches below our average. This ties us for the 10th least snowy April on record. The last time we saw measurable snow in April was in 2022.

This is unsurprising because of just how warm we ultimately were in April 2024. While there were plenty of temperature swings and fluctuations, we ended the month 3.3 degrees above average, which ranks us as the 12th warmest April and the warmest since 2017. You can see all the stretches of above and below average temperatures throughout the month below.

We saw two April days with high temperatures at 80 degrees or higher, 10 April days with highs of 70 degrees or higher, and five April days with highs of 50 degrees or lower. We also saw three freezing nights in April, with one of them coming after the growing season was declared on April 13th. We also saw a new record highest low temperature set on April 29th, when we only dropped to 62 degrees.

In a typical May, we usually see high temperatures rise from the 60s to the 70s and low temperatures rise from the 40s to the 50s. After our rainiest April ever, unfortunately, May is typically the rainiest month in Fort Wayne, with an average of 4.58 inches of rain. We usually are done with snow, but it has happened before in May. We saw a trace of snow on May 1st last year and the latest ever measurable snowfall in Fort Wayne happened on May 10th, 1945. Our last spring freeze is usually over in April, but we have seen one as late as May 27th in 1961. While it is usually safe to plant come Mother’s Day, keep this in mind.

What can you expect this May? There are equal chances for above or below average precipitation, according to the Climate Prediction Center. We’ll cross our fingers this at least means a return closer to average after our rainiest April ever. Chances are good though we’ll continue on our streak of months with above average temperatures, which is what we have in store to begin the month.

Stay tuned to our WANE 15 Weather Page for the latest forecast information as we enter the last month of Meteorological Spring. This means summer is almost here!

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WANE 15.