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April Showers at Grandfather Mountain, Year-to-Date Rainfall Exceeds 57-Year Average by 5+ Inches

May 7, 2013. The year-to-date rainfall recorded at Grandfather Mountain continues to be above average.  The Mountain has recorded 25.96 inches of rain at the Top Shop since January 1, 5.75 inches more than the 57-year-to-date average of 20.21 inches.

Eagles Cloudy Day
Grandfather Mountain recently released its two new bald eagles into new habitat. For more information about the new eagles, click here. Photo by Taylor Adams

The rainfall total from the Top Shop’s data is 5.09 inches for the past month, which is 0.03 inches below the 57-year average rainfall total for April of 5.12 inches.

Entrance Gate employees recorded 6.43 inches of liquid precipitation for the month and the naturalist staff recorded 6.93 inches at the weather equipment near the Fudge Shop.          

No snow was recorded on the Mountain in April.

The recorded snowfall for the winter (October 1, 2012 – April 30, 2013) is four inches at the Top Shop, 49.4 inches at the Fudge Shop and 55 inches at the Entrance Gate.

Of note this winter:  the Mountain’s first significant snowfall was 6.5 inches on October 30, the temperature never dipped below zero, the coldest temp recorded was .8 degrees on February 1 and a new three-second wind guest was set December 21 with a recording of 120.7 mph.       

The automatic weather station at the top of Grandfather Mountain recorded an average high temperature for April of 51.9 degrees and an average low temperature of 36.2 degrees.  These numbers are slightly above the State Climate Office data from Mt. Mitchell State Park.  The average high temperature at Mt. Mitchell was 50.6 degrees and the average low temperature was 33.9 degrees.  The lowest temperature recorded at Grandfather during the month was 19.8 degrees on April 2.

Wind gusts over 60 mph were recorded seven times.  The highest three-second gust during the month was 86 mph recorded April 20.

For more information on Grandfather Mountain’s weather data or to access current conditions please visit www.grandfather.com.