August 2003 Heatwave

[Weather-history]

Here's the Countryfile forecast from 3rd August 2003

Edited February 16, 2012 by Mr_Data

[Aaron]

Philip Avery looks the same!

[Marcus_surfer]

Philip Avery looks the same!

With a Lee Evans haircut!

[Weather-history]

Forecast from 4th August 2003

http://youtu.be/Ohd2PPFlutA

[Interitus]

The Met Office have a good run down of this warm spell on their site -

http://www.metoffice...03maxtemps.html

Here in the northwest of England although it was a decent spell of weather it was nowhere near as good as in many other places. Particularly disappointing on the record breaking 10th as already noted, I recall it was cloudy and only just into the 70s fahrenheit.

Edited February 16, 2012 by Interitus

[Northernlights]

Farmwise 2003 was up with "76" with harvest completed on the 11th August in both years about a month earlier than usual up here yields ok and no drying costs.Baling straw into round bales the straw was so dry and polished it would not even revolve in the baler to form a bale. ( We had fire extinguishers in every field where machinery was working ). The language was very blue and baling abandoned till evening when straw was a bit less dry .Oh for that problem last harvest,we are still opening damp bales to bed cattle!!!

[Weather-history]

Forecasts from the 5th and 6th August 2003

http://youtu.be/Iw8d9LoUjdI

[summer blizzard]

I was in the Cadbury's factory near Birmingham on the fateful day and it was very oppressive.

August 2003 definitely was not that special away from the SE. It reached 31.8C here which is nothing compared to August 1990 and July 2006

What did we get in those spells (i assume near 35C)?

[Aaron]

I was in the Cadbury's factory near Birmingham on the fateful day and it was very oppressive.

What did we get in those spells (i assume near 35C)?

August 1990, Leeds reached 34.4c. Not sure about July 2006 since Leeds Weather Centre closed in 2003, the best I can find is New Farnley which reached 32.2c, but it was probably higher in the city centre like it usually is

Edited February 17, 2012 by Aaron

[Weather-history]

http://youtu.be/RhE_kIOyz4A

[Interitus]

I was in the Cadbury's factory near Birmingham on the fateful day and it was very oppressive.

What did we get in those spells (i assume near 35C)?

Not to mention messy with all that melting chocolate!

[Weather-history]

BBC News coverage of the temperature record

[danm]

BBC News coverage of the temperature record

Brilliant! What a heatwave that was! Amazing. I remember that day like it was yesterday. Insanely hot.

Thanks for uploading the videos.

[Weather-history]

Here's the last of my downloads from the 11th August 2003. Something we sadly don't see these days is the sferic charts showing the position and movement of thunderstorms as can be seen with this forecast.

Edited February 18, 2012 by Mr_Data

[Evening thunder]

Thanks a lot for these videos! Looking at the video posted in post #35, in recent years when the forecast said 'look at the difference in temperature' while showing 25-27C you would think it had warmed up a lot, not cooled down by over 10C!

[pip22]

I remember i waked up really early and it was a very foggy morning and then the skies are getting darker and darker until the clouds gets pitch-greenish black, and it rained very very heavily. And flashes of lightining each second and I was only 12 years old at the time and because of it I was terrorfied!!

Ever since then I am terrorfied of thunderstorms. Because I fear a similar event is gonna happen. Thats where I get my fear of lightining from.

It just feels like the end of the world or doomsday.. I hope this doomsday never happen this year or otherwise it be like that strange weather event that I occurred it during the heatwave 2003 but much more common and deadly. I really hope it never happens this severe again.

Now the happy part of the Heatwave: :D

During the heatwave, before the thunderstorm I went on holiday in North Wales with my dad and brother. Its so hot over there It was a best holiday and it was sunny, clear skies every single day, apart from a odd downpour. In fact it was the only holiday when its perfect in Wales. I usually go to shell island every once per year, and 2003 is the bestest year when I went to.

In other years except 2010 it was windswept and a washout.

In some point during my childhood past, I remembered I suffered a heat stroke in Anglesey in Wales.

It was so severe my dad had to phone the ambulence. It was red all over my body and my worst part I remembered is my shoulder and it hurts quite a bit too. Maybe I used to got very pale white skin, then over the years I got darker and darker skin. Now I got olive skin.

After the heat stroke I used to peel my skin and throw it at people as a kid. only kidding. lol.

Edited February 21, 2012 by Fresh_Prince_Of_Leyland

[LetItSnow!]

20 years ago today we broke 100°F during the long, hot summer of 2003. Worryingly it seems rather tame compared to last year! A big difference back then in the heat lasting for several days beforehand, a gradual heating of the atmosphere, rather than in recent years where it's gone as quickly as it arrives.

[MP-R]

4 minutes ago, LetItSnow! said:

20 years ago today we broke 100°F during the long, hot summer of 2003. Worryingly it seems rather tame compared to last year! A big difference back then in the heat lasting for several days beforehand, a gradual heating of the atmosphere, rather than in recent years where it's gone as quickly as it arrives.

Last year, it heated up around the 08th July though, so there was a decent 10-day lead up to the highest temps.

[A Face like Thunder]

We were in N Yorkshire on 9th - 10th August 2003 and I recall it was really hot on Saturday 9th (the start of the football season of course) but the cloud rolled in on the morning of the 10th and any thoughts of records being broken that day in the Region quickly disappeared. Indeed the only record set on the 10th was a record short rainfall at Marton near Middlesbrough, quite a contrast with events further south. 

[cheese]

10 minutes ago, A Face like Thunder said:

We were in N Yorkshire on 9th - 10th August 2003 and I recall it was really hot on Saturday 9th (the start of the football season of course) but the cloud rolled in on the morning of the 10th and any thoughts of records being broken that day in the Region quickly disappeared. Indeed the only record set on the 10th was a record short rainfall at Marton near Middlesbrough, quite a contrast with events further south. 

Yeah, there were no records broken up here during the August 2003 heatwave. The highest temperature was 32C on the 9th, and on the 10th when it was 38C in London it was only 27C in Leeds. In fact, the 34.4C we recorded in August 1990 remained our record high temperature for 29 years until it was finally broken in July 2019 (which obviously only stood for 3 years). 

Edited August 10, 2023 by cheese

[Don]

Down in Cornwall, the weather was nothing to write home about on the 10th August 2003, in fact I had to come off the beach early as it started to rain and wasn't particularly warm!

PS how on Earth can that be 20 years ago?! 

Edited August 10, 2023 by Don

[danm]

Ah August 2003....

[SollyOlly]

ha ha, I just misread this as 'August 2023 heatwave'...sign of things to come perhaps?!

[Don]

8 hours ago, SollyOlly said:

ha ha, I just misread this as 'August 2023 heatwave'...sign of things to come perhaps?!

You silly bugger! 

It was asked at the time if it was a sign of things to come?  However, it took another 16 years for the record to be broken again.  That said, only three years later, the July 2019 record of 38.7C was obliterated last year, so I think it probably is a sign of things to come now?!

[Stuart Norman]

I travelled from Bromham to Mallory park that day August 10th to watch motoracing when I was 24 years old.

I was already interested in the weather and can remember clearly big growing clouds by mid morning.

By mid afternoon the sky's North from Mallory park looking were proper evil with lots of lightning but at Mallory we stayed dry well I left a 4 ish and it was then.

I drove back down M1 home brief torrential storms broke out and I watched them into the night at home out mum and dad bedroom window lol while my wife to be moaned at me for being boring.

Lol my late Mum when i got back asked me why I'd put a jumper on but I never remember it being very hot at Mallory it was warm yes very warm maybe hot but shows how local the record breaking heat was.

20 years later (nearly) June the 11th 2023 I did the same thing but this time I pictured  the storms bubbling up during our hot spell and then I drove home through them to tell my kids one of whom is now 18!!!.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Stuart Norman
Just to check my dates