April is a topsy-turvy month with wavering cold fronts moving through trying to tag along with the winter rain and cold. The sun is rising higher in the sky and in between those famous April showers. The sun beams upon the ground.
So that is what makes April showers and, of course, those soon to be May flowers. Meanwhile, the warmth of the sun beckons the lilacs and the unforgettable tranquility of their aroma.
Sometimes, however, a vigorous cold front with frigid air aloft moves in off the cold Pacific waters and interacts with the warmer air inland at the surface and instability occurs. Heavy showers and thunderstorms are most common. Sometimes the lapse rate in the rising air column is so unstable that a cold-core funnel cloud may appear. And maybe a tornado.
On Tuesday, we looked back to the April 5, 1972 and the F3 tornado that struck Vancouver, which killed six people. Washington had the most causalities that year of any other state from tornadoes.
