The final day of April catapulted both Dulles Airport and the longer-term Washington, DC into Top-10 total rainfalls for the month in their historical records. On April 30, 2020, the current official Washington, DC station at Reagan National Airport (located in Virginia, across the Potomac River from DC), started the day with a monthly total of 5.20″, requiring another 0.77″ to move into a tie for 10th place with the 5.97″ that fell in April 1952. The final total of 1.10″ on the 30th allowed this current month to record 6.30″, ranking it in 7th place all-time with a period of record dating back to 1871, now a 150-year archive. It not only surpasses 1952 but also the higher ranked years of 1929, 1940, and 1895 (see the link, below, for these amounts and other ranked years). 

Washington-Dulles International Airport (located in northern Virginia about 23 miles west of downtown DC), having a much shorter period of record only dating back to 1960, had an easier time ranking a bit higher into its Top-10 Aprils. Through the first 29 days of April 2020, Dulles had recorded 4.18″ and only required 0.68″ to tie for 10th place all-time for the month with 4.86″. By end of the day a total of 1.38″ had fallen for a monthly total of 5.56″, surpassing several of the previous Top-10 values to now rank in 6th place.

Link to Washington’s all-time Top-10 Precipitation totals for all months & years: Washington-DC-Top-Ten-Monthly-Annual-PRECIPITATION-Extremes

Link to Dulles Airport’s all-time Top-10 Precipitation totals for all months & years: Dulles-AP-Top-Ten-Monthly-Annual-PRECIPITATION-Extremes

Note, the Baltimore area was not even close to its Top-10 April amounts as the official station at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport totaled 1.24″ on the month’s final day and 5.52” for an April total, well behind the currently ranked #10 of 6.73” back in 1929.

The current downtown Baltimore/Inner Harbor station at the Maryland Science Center recorded a daily amount of 1.43″ on the 30th and monthly total of 5.97″ but this station’s precipitation data only goes back to 1999 so a Top-10 list isn’t really pertinent with such a short historical record.

Link to Baltimore’s all-time Top-10 Precipitation totals for all months & years: Baltimore_Top-Ten-Monthly-Annual-PRECIPITATION-Extremes

Cover Photo: Jefferson Memorial and Cherry Blossoms, courtesy of York Daily Record.