WASHINGTON — Federal meteorologists say April was a historic month for wild weather in the United States, and it wasn’t just the killer tornado outbreak that set records.
April included an odd mix of downpours, droughts and wildfires. Six Midwestern states — Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia — set records for the wettest April since 1895. The U.S. also had the most acres burned by wildfire for April since 2000.
Add to that a record 305 tornadoes from April 25-28, which killed at least 309 people, and the most tornadoes ever for all of April: 875.
U.S. scientists looked for the fingerprints of global warming and La Niña on last month’s deadly tornadoes but couldn’t find evidence to blame those oft-cited weather phenomena. The Associated Press
