While New Jersey experienced its 15th consecutive month of above-average temperatures, many residents of the state may think that April broke the string. What they may not recall is the 90° afternoon on the 16th or reaching the low 80°s at some locations as late in the month as the 21st. Rather, they remember the cool last week and a half of the month, the longest interval with below-average temperatures across the Garden State since an eleven day stretch late last October through the first week of November. That stretch included the first freeze of the season over much of the state on the 28th and the record breaking snowstorm on the 29th. The cool end-of-April period saw freezing temperatures in a number of locations occurring about two weeks after the average last freeze of the season. Jersey residents may also think that April had close-to-average precipitation, remembering the late season nor'easter that soaked the state on the 22nd. However there was very little additional precipitation, thus April was the 4th consecutive month with a below-average total.

The average temperature this past month of 52.6° is 1.4° above the 1981-2010 average. It was the 23rd warmest April since 1895. Being that this April was a bit cooler than April 2011, the twelve-month period ending this past March will remain as the warmest twelve-month period on record in NJ (out of 1397 such intervals since 1895). However, the twelve months ending this April is only 0.1° cooler and ranks as the second warmest on record.

Click here to see the distribution of the top 5 NJ warm/cold and wet/dry months since 1895