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

(Dr. Brian Brettschneider/WRCC)

At a Glance

Not December, January or February. These locations can have their heaviest snow in April.They tend to be located in the Rockies and adjacent High Plains.There have been several powerful April, even May snowstorms in recent years.

You may not think "April" and "heavy snow" go together in the same sentence, but in parts of the U.S., this spring month is typically the snowiest of the year.

Examining monthly snowfall data from 4,218 observations sites across the United States receiving a yearly average of at least 2 inches of snow, of the Western Regional Climate Center found almost three dozen locations where April is typically the snowiest month.

These locations are all in the northern or central Rockies and 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 include:

Casper, Wyoming: 11.6 inchesMt. Rushmore, South Dakota: 11.3 inches

While not its snowiest month, Lead, South Dakota, averages a stunning 32.9 inches of snow each April, and once 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/WRCC)

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/WRCC)

Recent April (and Later) Snowstorms

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

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

(Photo: weather.com contributor stevensue)

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

. Highwinds producedsnow drifts of more than 10 feet, and with the weight of the heavy snow, lead to downed trees, powerlines, 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 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 recentMaysnowstorms.

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

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

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been an incurable weather geek since a tornado narrowly missed his childhood home in Wisconsin at age 7. Follow him onFacebookandTwitter.

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A lone tulip is draped with snow after a spring storm swept over the intermountain west early Saturday, April 29, 2017, in Englewood, Colorado. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)