Minnesota weather: Onward and upward from cloudy, rainy April

(FOX 9) - It's onward and upward for our weather as we head into the first week of May. We could all use a little something to look forward to after the month we just went through. 

April was, well, lackluster. While it didn't quite make it into the top 10 coldest, it was close. On top of that, it was cloudy, rainy, and windy. 

Our average cloud cover for the month was 72%. For more than half the month (16 days) we were under a cloudy sky, with 12 partly cloudy days, and only two fair days. The National Weather Service categorizes these based on octants (eighths) of the sky covered by opaque clouds. Partly cloudy is 3/8-4/8ths. Cloudy is 8/8ths. 

Aside from the clouds, most of our days were also whipped up with wind. There were 21 days during the month of April, where our average wind speed was 11.5 mph or higher. We haven't met that threshold in the Twin Cities since 1990. 

On the bright side, we did see a lot of rain. By the end of the month, 3.98 inches of rain fell at the airport. That is 1.08 inches more than what we normally get in the month of April. 

While the first week of May is starting on that same cool and cloudy note, the sun will come out Tuesday, and our temperatures will climb into the 60s by the week's end.