Memories of 2004

[Sunny76]

Staying with the 2000s.

My memory of this year, was a chilly January, cold early February, followed by a very mild second half. 
 

March was mixed.

April was damp and cool with a few warmer days, and a early evening thunderstorm towards the end of the month. 
 

May was quite warm and sunny, and early June was decent. The main summer period was disappointing though, with way too much cloudy and damp weather. 
 

August was very warm at the start, but it was a humid and cloudy month. 
 

Warm sunny September, and probably the best spell of settled weather since May that year. 
 

Don’t remember much about the autumn, but Christmas was cold dry and sunny. 

[damianslaw]

Not a very memorable year weatherwise, not quite as unmemorable as 2002 but along with it possibly least interesting year of the 00s for me.

Jan and Feb mostly mild, there was a sharp northerly late Jan and also end Feb giving snow but other than that not alot of wintry weather.

March and April nothing memorable.

May brought a mixed bag some decent early summery weather second half seem to remember.

The summer was often unsettled from memory some heavy thundery rain at times but also some warmth. Again struggling to remember it.

The rest of the year often dull Atlantic driven and mainly mild. December brought little wintriness.

 

[MP-R]

Not quite so many fond memories compared to 2003 for me, but some things stick out.

January - thundersnow event on the 28th; the rest of the month was generally unremarkable but unsettled and chilly feeling.

February - very mild to start and cold to finish with a good snowfall again on the 26th/27th.

March - fairly standard March; cold dry first third, very wet and stormy until the 24th, then benign to finish with a warm close.

April - don't remember much apart from a run of cold damp days at the end after a warm spell just before.

May - very unsettled first third with a notable gale on the 4th and then a thundery period (the reverse plume) on the 10th/11th. A long dry period set up from mid month...

June - ... until the 20th of this month. The best weather of the summer came this month. It went downhill dramatically after the solstice. Unusual gale on the 23rd.

July - a disappointing month overall punctuated with occasional fine conditions, more so towards the end of the month.

August - hot humid first third then warm and humid with copious thundery episodes then a cooler more generally changeable final third.

September - fine, warm and sunny first third then much more unsettled thereafter and quite dull.

October - dull and miserable throughout from memory.

November - dull but not overly wet; a brief cold snap around the 19th/20th brought a brief episode of snow.

December - dull and boring first half; much more active second half with a surprise snowfall from a slider on the 19th then snow showers on Christmas Day.

[cheeky_monkey]

July for me was great as went to Tenerife for 2 weeks..remember coming back to a cold cloudy UK but still in my shorts and flip flops

[Weather-history]

January and February had short wintry interludes at the end of each month. Remember how mild the start of February was.

Always remember the snow warning bust mid-month. Met Office gave a snow warning at 10pm and I woke up next morning to....nothing. There was a potent gale around 20th

Had a thunderstorm during May which came down from the north, one of those occasions where a warm airmass came across from Scandinavia.

Start of June was hot, had a great view of the Transit of Venus but mid June to late July was really poor. 

August was very thundery and a washout. Early in the month it felt very tropical.

Autumn didn't stand out that much.

Remember GFS picking up on a cold NWly for Christmas as soon as Christmas came into its range. I recall watching every run and it seemed that it kept coming up with this cold NWly flow for Christmas. And it was a white Christmas. 

[Weather-history]

BBC weather January 2004

 

April

May 

June

 

[Weather-history]

July

August

September

 

October

November

December

 

[Sunny76]

7 hours ago, cheeky_monkey said:

July for me was great as went to Tenerife for 2 weeks..remember coming back to a cold cloudy UK but still in my shorts and flip flops

July was awful that year in London. I remember one day where it failed to reached 15c, and was the coldest July day since 1980.

[A Face like Thunder]

9th to 18th August was known for widespread thunderstorms, and a flash flood on the afternoon of the 16th led to 200mm of rain falling in 4 hours on the moors above Boscastle, and the resulting flash flood in the narrow valley below led to the devastation of Boscastle and scenes of horror and chaos which are remembered to this day. It was remarkable that no-one was killed, although 70 properties were damaged, some irreparably, 50 vehicles were washed into the harbour and over 50 people had to be rescued, some by helicopter (Eden).  We were in Prague at the time and could not believe what we were seeing on the BBC World News.   

[MP-R]

9 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

July was awful that year in London. I remember one day where it failed to reached 15c, and was the coldest July day since 1980.

Was that also the day of the washout low that came up from the BoB. Around the 07th/08th. Felt really autumnal!

[philglossop]

I was living in Glossop at the time and remember ringing my Mum in the afternoon to hear about Boscastle whilst shopping in Morrisons Hyde. Remember we had steak for dinner and watched in horror the national news and Spotlight on Sky rather than North West Tonight. Daft I remember what we had for dinner!

Came home for Christmas and missed the snow- but it was white driving home from Plymouth I do recall. 

[Sunny76]

2 hours ago, MP-R said:

Was that also the day of the washout low that came up from the BoB. Around the 07th/08th. Felt really autumnal!

It was early in the month.

I remember walking from Richmond back to Chelsea, and the weather was cold and rainy.

[iand61]

9 hours ago, A Face like Thunder said:

9th to 18th August was known for widespread thunderstorms, and a flash flood on the afternoon of the 16th led to 200mm of rain falling in 4 hours on the moors above Boscastle, and the resulting flash flood in the narrow valley below led to the devastation of Boscastle and scenes of horror and chaos which are remembered to this day. It was remarkable that no-one was killed, although 70 properties were damaged, some irreparably, 50 vehicles were washed into the harbour and over 50 people had to be rescued, some by helicopter (Eden).  We were in Prague at the time and could not believe what we were seeing on the BBC World News.   

Spent a few hours of lovely weather in Boscastle last September and it’s amazing how it was rebuilt so we’ll after the flood.

a couple of buildings have plaques on the walls mentioning the damage caused and the inside of a shop has a marker showing the height of the water being up to beams but apart from the rebuilt bridge it looks pretty much the same as when I was last there in 1999.

it’s a lovely village in a beautiful setting and it’s amazing how the tiny stream that runs along the side of the car park could ever cause so much destruction.

[SummerShower]

A brilliant August that year for weather enthusiasts, it felt tropical to the likes of which we've not experienced since (I was abroad for the comparable august 1997), was very thundery and had some autumnal weather thrown in at the end.  A unique month which will possibly not be repeated.

Also, i well remember the thundersnow on 28th January which produced the heaviest snow I have seen (but lasted less than an hour) and left 2 inches in that time.

 

 

[Weather-history]

Mid June-mid July 2004 had a CET of about 13.8C

 

[North-Easterly Blast]

On 22/03/2022 at 20:48, SummerShower said:

A brilliant August that year for weather enthusiasts, it felt tropical to the likes of which we've not experienced since (I was abroad for the comparable august 1997), was very thundery and had some autumnal weather thrown in at the end.  A unique month which will possibly not be repeated.

Also, i well remember the thundersnow on 28th January which produced the heaviest snow I have seen (but lasted less than an hour) and left 2 inches in that time.

 

 

I thought that August 2020 was a pretty close match to August 2004 - they both had a similarly warm overall CET but both Augusts were wet months overall, although I think that August 2004 was the wetter of the two. 

In fact summer 2020 was a very similar summer to 2004 overall; the CETs of June, July and August were very similar in 2020 to 2004 almost exactly month by month, and both summers had a wet August overall, and in fact rainfall in July 2004 was very similar to July 2020.  It is not often in the British weather that you get a three month season exactly alike to another year, but I think that summers 2004 and 2020 managed to be almost exactly alike. 

Another example of three month seasons almost exactly alike in two different years was summers 2006 and 2018.  Both these summers had a very hot July, and started with a warm and dry June, but both summers moderated somewhat in the August with something closer to average.  When you look at it, the summer of 2018 had CETs month by month very similar to 2006, and also similar rainfall month by month as well.  So in 2018 and 2020 we had summers that were an almost mirror image of 2006 and 2004 respectively.

[Lauren]

August is the main memory that springs to mind this year as it's the year my sister got married. I remember the weather in the second week was absolutely awful, very windy and rainy and her wedding was the 14th. I remember waking up on the 14th to beautiful sunshine and no wind, it was a perfect summer day for the wedding, before heading into rain and wind again the next day as we flew out on holiday. I recall sitting in Gatwick departure lounge watching the aircraft battling with the weather and doing several go arounds. The horrific Boscastle floods happened in the days after.

[BruenSryan]

No memories of it myself as I was too young. For Ireland, the most noteworthy events were:

- Record deep low pressure pushed up from the Bay of Biscay on 27/28 October. Valentia Observatory observed a minimum pressure of 957.5 mb. A tidal surge combined with very high tides and southeasterly gales led to severe flooding over southern parts of the country. Cork river levels were the highest seen since 1962. 

- The widespread white Christmas. Likely the whitest Christmas on record in terms of how many places seen snow falling on the day. However, accumulations weren't significant otherwise. 

Also a record sunny February and quite a thundery August with numerous thunderstorms giving local floods to me.

Not the most interesting year, pretty reflective of the 2000s decade weather wise to be honest which were quite benign.

[Summer18]

As previously mentioned the August sticks out most of all, it felt very warm especially in the first couple of weeks but also very very wet. I can remember 4 or 5 thunderstorms in that month alone.

I remember being sent home early from school in the January snowstorm, the other snow events I remember were one in November and also the flurries on Christmas day. 

There was a gale on a Saturday in March, the rest of the year I can’t really remember that much. 

[SummerShower]

2 hours ago, Summer18 said:

There was a gale on a Saturday in March, the rest of the year I can’t really remember that much. 

Yes that rings a bell, I think it was the 20th.  I recall some disruption to a premiership football match, midlands area I think.

There was also a gale on the evening of 31st January, but can't find any information on it.  Seemed quite severe

[Harry233]

January: Pretty unremarkable for most the month. Do remember it being very snowy at the end though.

February: Very mild in the first half but cold and snowy in the second.

March: Can’t remember so must’ve been a very average month.

April: Warm but very dull, quite a humid month from memory don’t think it was particularly wet though.

May: Very good, quite warm and sunny for the vast majority of the month. Some lovely weather in the middle part.

June: Wet and unsettled though warm

July: Quite unusual it was cool and dull for most of the month but I remember it being very dry. Warmer and sunnier in the last week.

August: Very wet but also very warm. I don’t think there’s ever been a more humid month that I can remember. Some very warm weather at the start and then exceptionally wet and thundery around the 7th-12th. Can remember a landslide at the A9 about the 9th and many villages in Perthshire being cut off with flooding. We lived near a stream by a park and I remember the water being right up to the bridge walkway. Don’t think Perth got flooded then but then I may be wrong. Got considerably cooler towards the end of the month.

September: Seemed very sunny, a few warm days thrown in. Cold at the end.

October: Wet and dull

November: Mild otherwise unremarkable 

December: Not much but do remember a white Christmas.

 

a pretty forgettable year minus the August and May