Memories of 2003

[LetItSnow!]

I'm taking inspiration from Sunny76 as these type posts are often my favourites to read on the whole website. I love to see your memories mixed with the data.

2003... I was only two at the time but this year stands out to me in the record books as a year in which each season felt amplified, perhaps almost opposite to the previous year, 2002 - a year in which the seasons were muddied up. The winter of 2002/2003 wasn't a classic but each of the three months attempted at least once in bringing something cold and snowy. December 2002 did bring tame easterlies but January  and February 2003 both brought spells of heavy snow and cold temperatures. Spring 2003 was mild and often very dry and sunny, though May was rather poor. I don't have to say much about the summer of 2003, warm to exceptionally hot all the way through, though often quite unsettled in June and July. The record-breaking heat of August 2003 and the fine sun-soaked September that followed. Just like that we then went into a cold and crisp October which was the coldest for ten years and saw a very cold final ten days. Then another flip - this time to exceptionally warm weather - early November 2003 saw warm and sunny weather with temperatures into the low-20s. From pictures and peoples observations, the autumn of 2003 brought a spectacular colour display because of the perfect conditions through August-November. December 2003 brought a lot of variety including a bit of everything. Christmas unfortunately turned mild in the nick of time.

Monthly anomalies compared to 1991-2020

January: -0.2degC / February: -1.0degC / March: +0.8degC

April: +0.6degC / May: +0.2degC / June: +1.4degC

July: +0.7degC / August: +1.8degC / September: +0.1degC

October: -1.7degC / November: +0.7degC / December: -0.2degC 

ANNUAL: +0.31degC

Charts

January 2003 - A month bookended by cold and snowy spells; cold easterlies with snow and frost, then a long mild spell from the 12th to the 27th. Very potent northerly on the 30th, occuring just 3 days after record-warmth.

February 2003 - An unusually anticylonic month with a exceptional deal of sunshine and plenty of frost but little snow. The start of a very dry year. Mild, springlike end.

March 2003 - Unsettled and even quite stormy for the first 7 days, then practically bone dry under a permanent areas of high pressure. Exceptionally sunny, warm by day and very dry.

April 2003 - Warm overall but very changeable. Briefly unsettled then dry and mild. An attempt at cold easterlies ends up as exceptionally hot southeasterlies, then cold again. Turning wet and and thundery to end the month.

May 2003 - Often wet, cool and dull up until the 25th, then turning hot and humid. Probably the least interesting month of 2003.

June 2003 - The hottest June since 1976 yet frequently unsettled. Winds permanently from a southerly quadrant. I imagine often thundery and very humid by night.

July 2003 - Similar to June, often unsettled but nearly always ranging from very warm to hot. Very hot mid-month. Unusually for a hot summer, this was generally a wet month.

August 2003 - Very dry and very hot, both the most of the summer + the last "classic" August. Record-breaking heat in the first half, more generally warm anticyclonic second hald. Cold end with ground frost.

September 2003 - Very dry and very sunny thanks to a persistent anticyclone. The warmest maxima since 1959 but the coldest minima since 1993. More unsettled later.

October 2003 - Very cold, particularly in the second-half. Some of the juiciest synoptic patterns to happen for years, unfortunately occuring in October. Very sunny and dry, continuing a very dry.

November 2003 - Remarkably warm spell early on after a cold October, then more unsettled later. Mostly rather dry but extremely wet in the southeast from the 21st to the 26th with 6 weeks worth of rain in 6 days.

December 2003 - A changeable month with a bit of everything - cold & snow, frosty anticyclones and balmy westerlies. Cold and snowy snap in the run up to Christmas but mild on the day itself.

What's your weather memories of 2003?

[Sunny76]

I have a decent memory of this year, being 27 at the time. I also stopped working at the start of March as a decorator. Was working for a builder in West London, carrying out office maintenance, but the work dried up, and following a few private jobs I ended up taking a long 9 months of a so- called sabbatical.(I was basically unemployed and still paying rent to my mum at the time)

Spent most of April and the summer sunning myself on the roof terrace. This was the best year for sunny and warm weather, after a number of mediocre summers, and in my opinion was the best summer overall since 1995 at that time. 
 

January was quite snowy, despite the mild middle, and it was the first time London was covered in snow since February 1994. Also was the start of a string of winters with some snowfall in London. 2004, and 05 produced snow in London, although we had to wait until Feb 2009 for a heavy dumping of snow to rival the 90s.

It was noticeably colder during January and February, and considering the previous Christmas was very mild and damp, the winter as a whole felt chilly and not very mild. 
 

March was sunny and warm, April was even better and felt hot later in the month. Similar to April 2002, as that was also warm and sunny, but much better in terms of longer spells of sunshine.

May was very drab and forgettable.

June, July and August were mostly warm or hot and sunny. There were a couple of weeks in July where it became a little unsettled, but I don’t remember getting any storms during summer 2003. 
 

The Autumn was a cooler one, but don’t remember anything that interesting towards the backend of the year.

[Cheshire Freeze]

38 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

I have a decent memory of this year, being 27 at the time. I also stopped working at the start of March as a decorator. Was working for a builder in West London, carrying out office maintenance, but the work dried up, and following a few private jobs I ended up taking a long 9 months of a so- called sabbatical.(I was basically unemployed and still paying rent to my mum at the time)

Spent most of April and the summer sunning myself on the roof terrace. This was the best year for sunny and warm weather, after a number of mediocre summers, and in my opinion was the best summer overall since 1995 at that time. 
 

January was quite snowy, despite the mild middle, and it was the first time London was covered in snow since February 1994. Also was the start of a string of winters with some snowfall in London. 2004, and 05 produced snow in London, although we had to wait until Feb 2009 for a heavy dumping of snow to rival the 90s.

It was noticeably colder during January and February, and considering the previous Christmas was very mild and damp, the winter as a whole felt chilly and not very mild. 
 

March was sunny and warm, April was even better and felt hot later in the month. Similar to April 2002, as that was also warm and sunny, but much better in terms of longer spells of sunshine.

May was very drab and forgettable.

June, July and August were mostly warm or hot and sunny. There were a couple of weeks in July where it became a little unsettled, but I don’t remember getting any storms during summer 2003. 
 

The Autumn was a cooler one, but don’t remember anything that interesting towards the backend of the year.

I think in 2003 the storms often went up the western side of the UK. I was 15 at the time and remember being on holiday in Rhyl during the summer holidays. Big MCS kept me up one night, with the rain hammering on the top of the caravan.

[Northernlights]

Standout for me  very early harvest finished on the 11th of August in 90F heat  only equalled by Agust 1976 .So hot straw was too dry to bale during day as bale would not turn in baler so only baled in the evening. Average  harvest finish date second week in September .

[sheikhy]

7 hours ago, CreweCold said:

I think in 2003 the storms often went up the western side of the UK. I was 15 at the time and remember being on holiday in Rhyl during the summer holidays. Big MCS kept me up one night, with the rain hammering on the top of the caravan.

I was 14 at the time!!remember coming back from a 10 day holiday in dubai leaving in 40 degree heat only to arrive to the same level of heat here in the uk!felt kinda spoilt lol!quite something it was!!

[Andy Bown]

August 2003 was the first example for me of how heatwaves (and cold spells) can get extended at late notice rather than forecast breakdowns.

I think the heat was due to end on a Sunday but didn’t go until the Wednesday, the intervening Monday was the hottest day locally.

[damianslaw]

Stand out the exceptional heat of August 2003. The summer as a whole was very warm with early heat in April. Remember it being a very humid heat as well.

Rest of the year not especially memorable. Jan was cold and snowy at times and Feb brought frosty dry weather. The Autumn was generally wet with a cold October. December brought a bit of cold.

Edited March 14, 2022 by damianslaw

[A Face like Thunder]

I was on the North Yorkshire coast over the weekend of 9th - 10th August when the thermometer (further south) officially reached 100F for the first time. Saturday 9th was extremely hot all day, the hottest I've known it in the area, and being in a caravan was no fun that night. We were half-expecting even hotter on Sunday 10th, given the forecast, but thundery cloud rolled in during the morning and the rest of the day was humid but not as hot as the Saturday. There were a few rumbles of thunder and spots of rain, and further north on Teesside, there was short-lived heavy hail and dramatic flooding, with up to 50mm falling in 12 minutes, some sort of record I believe. The rest of our time in NY in August 2003 was warm but no so hot but I recall a local restaurant with a roof garden did brisk business throughout the month.   

[danm]

Quite a standout year.

I turned 17 in the January and remember the Thames streamer event on 8th Jan, which dumped a good 4/5 inches of snow on the Gtr London/Essex border, where I was at school at the time. 

Then ofcourse there was the blazing hot summer, with that exceptional week in August. 

[cheeky_monkey]

I remember 2003 very well..my youngest was born In January 2003 ..first couple weeks were cold and a bit snowy then was mild and drab..the last week which i had off as he was born on the Friday 24th was cold with a bit of snow..the other reason i remember this year as it was my last year as a site manager and my last project as such before moving into the office in a more senior role..the project was a large holiday complex in East Devon and remember it being a very warm summer if a bit wet to start then being very hot first two weeks of August..Autumn was coolish but pretty dry..jeez almost forgot i retired from playing football on Nov 2, 2003 when i snapped my cruciate ligaments and despite two knee reconstructions i never kicked a ball in anger again..Xmas was spent on crutches and was pretty drab.

[Summer18]

I was 10, very much into football so I remember being outdoors a lot. We had a few snowfalls in the winter, especially in early February.

I remember the time around Easter in April was really warm. The summer heatwaves are of course the standouts. I was camping in the August one on the North East coast and it felt like abroad.

The Saturday in August was by far one of the hottest days I can ever remember, walking out of air conditioned McDonalds and getting blasted by a jet of hot air when the door opened sticks out.

The Sunday which was the hottest day I remember being fairly disappointing, the heat stayed down south so further north it was cooler and thundery.

Christmas was really dull and mild but we had an unexpected heavy snowfall on New Years Eve which left a few inches. Bit of everything that year. 

Edited March 16, 2022 by Summer18

[Derecho]

I remember this year very well as I was 14 at the time.  Had surgery in the January of that year and it was mild at the time but when I went back home we had a toppler northerly but this was much more potent then the usual with some hefty snow showers off the North Sea and I think this continued till early February. The rest of February was dry and chilly but they was some very mild days at the end.

March was another dry and fine month and April continued the dry weather but there was some hot days too and I remember wondering when it was next going to rain. May was unsettled I think but the summer was superb. Some hot weather in late June and for even longer periods during July (though some unsettled periods in this month).

The August heatwave was the first time I can really remember anything above the standard 32/33C and the prolonged nature of the heat as well as the intensity, hearing about all the deaths in France is what got me thinking about climate change for the first time. The Sunday in which the all time record at that point was set I remember just being cloudy with distant rumbles of thunder. The rest of the month was cooler but very dry, as was September.

October I can remember being very cold and getting excited for the winter ahead. Was a false dawn really, November was mild and wet. December can't remember much of but I think we did get a bit of lying snow briefly between Christmas and New Year.

I was in Hull at the time.

Edited March 16, 2022 by Quicksilver1989

[Sunny76]

Christmas was sort of average I feel, similar to Christmas 2013, which was dull and damp. 

[Lauren]

I remember the heatwave that hit Europe in the Summer. We we're in Rhodes at the time and there was a thing where all the shops apart from food shops closed because it was too hot and the roads had started to go sticky due to the tarmac melting. It was stifling. Felt like you were breathing in air from an oven. For the two days that the order was in we spent the entire day in the water in the shade. I remember flying back to the UK and seeing so much grass that had dried out and turned yellow which was unusual to see.

[Methuselah]

Summer 2003 was the only time I ever got diagnosed with asthma, and given an inhaler!

[MP-R]

Probably one of my favourite years weatherwise looking back.

January - the notable cold spell in the first half and also dramatic change from mild to very cold in the final week. During the first week, a number of flooded fields from the autumn before froze over completely, with a light dusting of snow on the top. Shame there wasn't much snow from that spell here.

February - no vivid memories of this month but it was very dry, often sunny and quite chilly throughout until the end.

March - stormy start with thunder on two occasions, then the prolonged settled second half that was very sunny and often warm feeling. This was the first occasion I remember such a long period of settled weather in March.

April - a sunny, mostly dry but varied month. Warm to start, then cold in the second week with wintry showers on the 10th, then the sudden switch to heat shortly after. This was the first time I remember experiencing high summer like temperatures in April, not experienced again until 2011. The end of the month was wetter and there was a big thunderstorm here on the 30th.

May - probably the most disappointing month of the year. Largely unsettled and often cool, but half term at the end had a heatwave.

June - perpetually warm rather than ever overly hot. Lots of sunshine and outdoor conditions although there were a few wetter days earlier on.

July - cool start then plenty of warm/hot weather culminating in notable  heat midmonth. I spent a few days camping in North Wales during the heatwave and the continental feel was memorable, even up there. Less clever for the rest of the month, although I holidayed abroad after the 24th. This was timed nicely with probably the worst weather of the summer.

August - the last classic August in my opinion. Coming back from holiday to equal levels of heat and higher humidity was a rare experience. It almost didn't rain all month but the final week brought a light respite and a chilly final weekend. Only 2020 has brought similar conditions in August since.

September - another classic month, and the first time I remember long settled conditions that resemble summer in September. Starting rugby season on rock solid ground that stayed such throughout the month. Even midmonth was still very warm and sunny.

October - another sunny month, but much cooler. Conversely, I distinctly remember a very cold and wet day in the second half of the month when higher ground had wintriness. Some decent frosts in the final third before a wet end.

November - fairly standard fayre this month. Wet and often mild, with a rare occurrence of gales midmonth. The final week brought colder conditions with frost.

December - I was only in the country for the first half of the month which had a bit of everything. Frost, fog, heavy rain and some sunny spells. The second half of the month was a bit more interesting but I was in warmer climes.

 

Overall a great year for sunshine but not so good for thunderstorms or generally severe weather (other than the heatwave). With a few more storms and snow in winter, I'd take another 2003. It was a blessing after the incredibly dull 2002.

 

 

[markyo]

My overriding memory of 2003 was the Summer months. Total misery, sweating, no sleep, so uncomfortable it was unbearable at night. Certainly one of the worst summers I've lived through.

[Sunny76]

2 hours ago, markyo said:

My overriding memory of 2003 was the Summer months. Total misery, sweating, no sleep, so uncomfortable it was unbearable at night. Certainly one of the worst summers I've lived through.

I think the summers of 2008-12 were more up your street. 

[markyo]

3 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

I think the summers of 2008-12 were more up your street. 

True, 2007 was perfect for me, not for most i know. One of the best recently was 2018, the heat without humidity was fine, unlike 2003. 

[cheeky_monkey]

2 hours ago, markyo said:

True, 2007 was perfect for me, not for most i know. One of the best recently was 2018, the heat without humidity was fine, unlike 2003. 

always remember summer 2006 (not inc August) as being worse for heat and humidity than 2003

[markyo]

47 minutes ago, cheeky_monkey said:

always remember summer 2006 (not inc August) as being worse for heat and humidity than 2003

i admit 2006 was awful, seem to remember it was longer the suffering that time but not quite as bad as i aircon by then.

[SummerShower]

2003 was a great year for dry and sunny weather.  I was 22/23 and spent many an evening in pub gardens.  This was trueof March, April, the end of May and practically all of the summer including September.  There weren't that many storms though (July 2006, July 2013 and to some degree July 2014 were better individual months for heat and storm combo), but for longevity of dry and sunny conditions this year is hard to beat - May through July 2018 the nearest challenger.

We also had our biggest snowfall for 4 years when nearly 2 inches fell on 8th January.  February was amazingly sunny but had sharp frosts on many mornings.  

I also remember a period in November (around the 20th to 23rd) where it rained non stop for 72 hours, alternating between light and heavier outbreaks, and 100mm must have fallen.  Roads were flooded everywhere locally.

A great year weather-wise- 1995 probably the only year that beats it in my lifetime