October 2003 Historic Analysis

OCTOBER 2003 HISTORIC PIECE 

October 2003 has been on my mind recently, so I thought I may as well write about October 2003, because it was quite interesting to be honest.

The start of the month was quite mild and pleasant for the whole country, lots of sun and some scattered autumnal showers moving through. On the 4th and 5th of October the some areas in England got some thunder.

On the 6th of October, high pressure temporarily pulls away, allowing cool northwesterly winds to come down on the country, bring showery weather and a little cooler weather for a time particularly in the north west.

 

After that chilly wet snap, high pressure builds right back in on the 7th, bring drier weather and sunnier weather to most of the country, and some foggy nights. 

On the 11th of October the high pressure begins to retrogress towards Greenland, however the UK and Ireland are still under that high pressure, which pretty much just temperatures average, sunny, with a few showers here and there.

On the 14th of October the high builds up to Greenland, but the UK and Ireland still relatively dry, foggy, and sunny too. Temperatures were around 10-15 Maximums on the 14th of October, at higher ground it wouldve been cooler. So the high pressure was still making the weather mild at this point.

The winds were primarily coming from the South East so that's probably why the weather was still around average or a bit milder at this point in time.

The high pressure continues to move away from the UK, and the high pressure begins to stregtthen over greenland. And then the high pressure begins to weaken on the UK.

 Then and the 20th of October, north easterlies break through the high pressure and bring a lot colder air to British shores.

On the 22nd of October,  sleet and snow fell widely across Dartmoor  after the cool air began to take hold for a while.

During the day temperatures were around 9 celsius or below across the UK and Ireland.

On the 24th of October some areas went below freezing, especially in the Midlands in the Republic of Ireland

Shortly after that cool snap high pressure built back in on the 26th and the wind turned back to a westerly direction. and things became sunny, and a bit warmer. 27th was similar sunny and dry. 

Then on the 28th the Atlantic broke through and it became cooler not as cold as it was before, but cool and wet with more Atlantic storms around, a really deep low pressure effected the South West of UK on the 30th and 31st of October

October finished on a relatively cool and unsettled note

On local record it is the second coldest October since 1996, 2012 had a colder October, ever so slightly