April had surged toward the top of the rainfall record books for Baker City before the month was half over.

The soggy evening of Sunday, April 14 made the day the wettest in April in 14 years.

Sunday’s total of 0.52 of an inch at the Baker City Airport was the most in an April day since April 20, 2010, when 1.14 inches splashed into the airport rain gauge.

(That was the second-wettest day at the airport since World War II, surpassed only by April 27, 1978, when 1.34 inches sluiced down.)

Sunday was also the 10th wettest April day since 1943.

Rain fell at the airport from around 6:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m., based on reports from an automated weather station.

There were rumbles of thunder as well during the storm.

Triggered by a low-pressure system passing through Nevada, the storm had a relatively unusual trajectory, moving from east to west, opposite of the usual pattern.

The reason is that air circulates in a counterclockwise rotation around low-pressure centers, and because the low was south of Baker City, rain embedded in the storm was circulating from east to west.

Sunday’s deluge, combined with the briefer downpour on Friday, April 12, brought April’s rainfall total to 1.27 inches through the 14th.

With 16 days days left in the month, this April already ranked as the 10th-wettest since 1943.

And even a couple moderate showers could lift this April into the top five.

The wettest Aprils:

• 1978 — 3.58 inches

• 2010 — 1.83 inches

• 1965 — 1.73 inches

• 2003 — 1.57 inches

• 1984 — 1.41 inches

• 2006 — 1.39 inches

• 1967 — 1.37 inches

• 1969 — 1.31 inches

• 1948 — 1.28 inches