April: Just Right

 

If I had a machine that would let me suspend Dallas/Fort Worth within a single month’s weather forever, I would probably pick April (though May has its charms). April has most, if not all, of the best facets of Metroplex weather: the days are generally warm, the nights generally cool, it rains sometimes (but not every day!), the world’s still coming alive after its long winter’s nap, the Bradford pears that every city and most companies use for landscaping are in bloom, and if you head down toward Waxahatchie, you’ll probably see clouds of bluebonnets on the roadside and median. They’re not as dense as when I was a kid (naturally), but there are still plenty to see.

 

April is the best part of spring here. You’re mostly past the vagaries of winter, although one can occasionally be surprised by a last gasp from the Great White North. Sometimes we get a little hail, sometimes a few specks of sleet. But you can usually start getting serious about your gardening without worrying too much (yet!) about weeds and bugs. Oh, and the garage sales start up fast and furious as people get serious about their spring cleaning. If you like hopping from sale to sale looking for bargains, April’s the time to get to it, since the weather is so wonderfully agreeable. Daytime averages are in the mid-70s, while nighttime temperatures average about 55. While this may seem warm to some folks in the northern half of the country, down here it’s shirtsleeve weather, and blessedly cool compared to the extremes of July and August.

 

One caveat: the D/FW Metroplex lies at the south end of the infamous Tornado Alley, so we do occasionally get a nasty April tornado. One of the most memorable occurred on April 2, 1957, well before the time of most people who live here today, but it’s still remembered with dread. Personally, I can recall tornados that hit nearby Lancaster (near Fort Worth) two years in a row back in the mid-1990s, and of course there was the great Fort Worth tornado of 2000, which tore through downtown. But that one happened in May, not April. In all the years I’ve lived here, I’ve never actually seen a tornado or even a funnel cloud. I’ve been worried sometimes, but rarely in April.

 

If you like wild weather, you’ll probably find April in Dallas/Fort Worth to be boring. But for the rest of us, it’s heaven. The weather doesn’t get in the way of anything (like, for example, going to Fort Worth to see Cats! on THE ONE AND ONLY TIME you’ve every bought theater tickets), and the heat doesn’t turn you into a pile of sweaty protoplasm, which it’s good for <>

from June to October. Beautiful!

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