At a Glance

A low-pressure system is bringing snow and some ice to parts of the Plains as April begins.Some locations in the Rockies can have their heaviest snow in April.There have been several powerful April, even May, snowstorms in recent years.

April is the snowiest month of the year in parts of the Rockies and High Plains, and right on schedule, a storm system is spreading snow through these areas.

Snow and freezing rain are currently falling in the Upper Midwest. Some were reported south and east of Denver early Friday.

Some light accumulations in northern Wisconsin and northern Michigan this evening.

Higher elevations of western Wyoming and south-central Montana have picked up more than a foot of snow from this weather system. About 23 inches of snow was measured near Cooke City, Montana.

Just over 12 inches of snow fell near Rapid City, South Dakota. In North Dakota, Fargo reported 0.20 inches of ice on Thursday morning.

Where April Is the Snowiest Month

There are nearly three dozen locations where April is typically the snowiest month, according to , a climatologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who examined monthly snowfall data from 4,218 U.S. observation sites that receive a yearly average of at least 2 inches of snow.

Locations where April is the snowiest month, or tied for the snowiest month, on average.

(Dr. Brian Brettschneider)

These locations are all in the northern or central Rockies and the adjacent High Plains, particularly the Black Hills of South Dakota, which is known for both very early and very late in season heavy, wet snowstorms.

Among those locations:

Casper, Wyoming: 11.6 inchesMount Rushmore, South Dakota: 11.3 inches

While not its snowiest month, Lead, South Dakota, averages 32.9 inches of snow each April and was buried in 86.7 inches of snow in April 1984.

Average snowfall from April through June based on 1981-2010 data.

(Dr. Brian Brettschneider)

Brettschneider found thatwhile the lion's share of cities have their snowiest month in the core winter months of December through February, just under 500 locations are snowiest either in the fall (October or November) or spring (March or April).

(INTERACTIVE: When the Last Snow of Spring Typically Falls Where You Live)

Histogram of the distribution of snowiest months of all U.S. reporting stations with at least 2 inches of snow. For example, March is the snowiest month for 377 reporting stations. In the case of a tie for the snowiest month, each tied month is counted for each station.

(Dr. Brian Brettschneider)

Recent April (and Later) Snowstorms

Last April, brought a blizzard to the High Plains, more than 2 feet of snow to the Dakotas, an ice storm to parts of several Midwestern states and even a dust storm to the southern High Plains.

In 2018, dumped record snow for the month of April on parts of the upper Midwest and Great Lakes, including Minneapolis-St. Paul and Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Xanto brought 15.8 inches of snow to Minneapolis-St. Paul April 13-16, 2018, making it the . It was the 12th-heaviest snowstorm . Winter Storm Xanto pushed Minneapolis-St. Paul to its snowiest April on record, with .

Green Bay picked up 24.2 inches of snow from Xanto April 13-16, 2018, ranking not only as the city's heaviest April storm, but also the . Blizzard conditions were observed in Green Bay from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. CDT on April 15.

In mid-April 2016, dumped over 4 feet of snow in the foothills west of Denver and a foot in the city.

Three years before that, in early-April 2013, was one of the most bizarre April snowstorms of recent history, not only , but producing .

At left: Doppler radar just before 7 a.m. CDT April 10, 2013, showing areas of freezing rain from northwestern Texas to South Dakota. At right: Ice storm photo from April 9, 2013, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

(weather.com contributor stevensue)

. Highwinds producedsnow drifts of more than 10 feet, and with the weight of the heavy snow, led to downed trees and power lines and some roof collapses.

(MORE: Ranking the Most Extreme U.S. Winter Storms)

As it turns out, , as classified by NOAA's Regional Snowfall Index, occurred in April.

The most recent case was a four-day,late-April 1984 blizzard, dumping 3to 6feet of snow in the Black Hills of South Dakota, mountains of northern Wyoming and southern Montana.

We've also had two notable Maysnowstorms in recent history.

pounded the Rockies and High Plains as Tropical Storm Ana was making landfall in South Carolina on Mother's Day weekend in 2015.

The previous Mother's Day, in 2014, was the latest and heaviest snowstorm of record in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and dumped a few slushy inches of snow in Denver.

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