Monday, May 11, 2009

April 2009 climate stats and forecast accuracy

April 2009 was a dry month, but temperatures averaged right at normal. Following are climate summaries for Memphis International Airport and Bartlett, TN.

Memphis International Airport
At the official recording station for Memphis, the average temperature was 62.0 degrees, which was 0.1 degrees below normal. The highest temp for the month was 85 degrees, recorded three times during the last week in the month, and the lowest was 36 on the 7th. Precipitation totaled 3.63", which was over 2" below the normal of 5.79". There were 9 days with measurable rainfall recorded and one day with more than an inch of rain. Five days had recorded thunder. The peak wind gust was 40 mph on the 19th. Click here for the NWS recap.

WXLIVE! in Bartlett
In Bartlett, WXLIVE! recorded an average temperature was 61.4 degrees, with a max of 87.4 on the 23rd and a min of 34.4 degrees on the 15th. Precipitation totaled 3.46". The peak wind gust was 33 mph on 4/5. Click here for the WXLIVE! recap.

April Accuracy
The MWN Forecast accuracy statistics are finalized as well. For the month of April, the MWN forecast beat out the computer models and the NWS forecast in the temperature and dewpoint categories. Average MWN temperature error for April was 2.38 degrees, followed by the NAM model at 2.44 degrees, the NWS at 2.48 degrees, and the GFS model at 2.56 degrees. As you can see, all model's performance was very similar for the month, but once again MWN takes the cake!

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