April nearly as cold as February; record snow

Five days of snowfall in the past week buried plans for the annual Haines Invitational track meet and caught motorists and plow drivers by surprise.

The weather set an apparent record for total snowfall for the month of April downtown – 13.3 inches – but not one for cold. The month’s average temperature, 34.9 F., was five degrees colder than normal but still a bit warmer than the coldest April on record, which came in…