ZCZC INDPNSIND
NOUS43 KIND 011140
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE INDIANAPOLIS IN
640 AM EST THU JAN 1 2004
...INDIANAPOLIS 2003 WEATHER SUMMARY...
THE WEATHER YEAR WAS HIGHLIGHTED WITH ACTIVITY ON SEVERAL MAJOR
HOLIDAYS...INCLUDING FLOODING ON MOTHERS DAY...MEMORIAL DAY AND
LABOR DAY ALONG WITH SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ON THE FOURTH OF JULY.
DURING 2003 INDIANAPOLIS SAW ITS WETTEST DAY ON RECORD AS WELL AS
THE SNOWIEST FEBRUARY AND THE WETTEST SEPTEMBER...THE YEAR ALSO
TURNED OUT TO BE THE 10TH WETTEST ON RECORD.
JANUARY WAS COLDER AND SNOWIER THAN NORMAL. THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE
WAS 21.7 DEGREES WHICH WAS 4.8 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL. SNOW FELL ON 17
DAYS...RAISING THE TOTAL FOR THE MONTH TO 14.6 INCHES WHICH IS 5.3
INCHES ABOVE NORMAL.
FEBRUARY SAW SNOW CONTINUE TO PILE UP WITH ANOTHER 15 DAYS OF SNOW.
THE MONTHLY SNOWFALL RECORD WAS BROKEN ALONG WITH SEVERAL DAILY
SNOWFALL RECORDS. THE MONTHLY TOTAL ENDED AT 21.7 INCHES SURPASSING
THE PREVIOUS RECORD OF 21.0 INCHES SET IN 1910. FEBRUARYS NORMAL
SNOWFALL IS 6.1 INCHES. DAILY RECORD SNOWFALL AMOUNTS WERE ALSO
RECORDED ON THE 11TH WITH 4.6 INCHES AND ON THE THE 22ND WHEN 6.3
INCHES WAS OBSERVED. A RECORD SNOW DEPTH FOR FEBRUARY 24TH OCCURRED
WHEN 9 INCHES WAS MEASURED AT THE AIRPORT. WHILE NO TEMPERATURE
RECORDS WERE SET THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE WAS 25.4 DEGREES WHICH WAS
5.8 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL.
MARCH BEGAN AND ENDED WITH COLD TEMPERATURES BUT A WARM SPELL
THROUGH THE MIDDLE PART OF THE MONTH PUSHED THE AVERAGE TO 1.6
DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL. ADDITIONAL SNOWFALL OF 2.6 INCHES BROUGHT THE
TOTAL FOR THE SNOWFALL SEASON TO 50.0 INCHES. THIS RANKS THIRD IN
ACCUMULATION AND WAS 23.9 INCHES ABOVE NORMAL. THE SNOWIEST SEASON
WAS 1981-1982 WITH 58.2 INCHES.
APRIL SAW WARMER AND DRIER AIR MOVING IN AS THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE
OF 54.6 DEGREES PUSHED JUST 2.6 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL. PRECIPITATION
OF 2.55 INCHES FOR THE MONTH WAS 1.06 INCHES BELOW NORMAL. A PEAK
WIND GUST OF 49 MPH OCCURRED ON THE 20TH AS A COLD FRONT MOVED
ACROSS THE STATE.
WET WEATHER SHOWED UP FOR MAY WITH 15 DAYS OF RAIN AND A MONTHLY
TOTAL OF 6.39 INCHES. THIS WAS 2.03 INCHES ABOVE NORMAL AND BROUGHT
THE ANNUAL TOTAL TO 17.37 INCHES PUSHING THE RUNNING TOTAL FOR THE
YEAR TO 1.08 INCHES ABOVE NORMAL. ON MAY 10TH AND 11TH RAINFALL
ACCUMULATED 2.04 INCHES IN A 24 HOUR PERIOD.
COOL TEMPERATURES SETTLED IN FOR JUNE WITH A RECORD LOW OF 39
DEGREES SET ON THE 1ST. THE PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 40 DEGREES SET IN
1993. PRECIPITATION WAS BELOW NORMAL WITH ONLY 2.36 INCHES WHICH WAS
1.77 INCHES BELOW THE NORMAL.
STORMY WEATHER DEVELOPED DURING JULY WITH THUNDERSTORMS REPORTED ON
15 DAYS DURING THE MONTH. FLOODING OCCURRED IN MANY AREAS AND
RAINFALL TOTALED 8.01 INCHES. THIS WAS 4.42 INCHES ABOVE NORMAL AND
PLACED 10TH IN THE LIST OF WETTEST JULYS. RAINFALL WHICH ACCUMULATED
FROM JULY 5TH TO JULY 6TH TOTALED 2.99 INCHES.
AUGUST HAD SLIGHTLY ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND THE MONTH ENDED ON
A WET NOTE. THE HIGHEST TEMPERATURE FOR THE MONTH WAS 93 DEGREES
WHICH WAS RECORDED ON THE 27TH...THIS WAS ALSO THE WARMEST
TEMPERATURE FOR THE SUMMER. THE AVERAGE MONTHLY TEMPERATURE WAS 74.9
DEGREES OR 1.4 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL. TOTAL MONTHLY RAINFALL WAS 4.64
INCHES WHICH WAS ONLY 0.82 INCH ABOVE NORMAL. OVER 1 INCH OF RAIN
FELL ON AUGUST 31ST WHICH LED INTO THE FLOODING EVENT ON LABOR DAY.
SEPTEMBER SET MANY RAINFALL RECORDS AND WIDESPREAD FLOODING WAS
SEEN. ONE DEATH OCCURRED WHEN A WOMAN DROVE HER VEHICLE INTO FLOOD
WATERS ALONG FALL CREEK. THE MONTH ENDED AS THE WETTEST
SEPTEMBER ON RECORD IN INDIANAPOLIS WITH A RAINFALL TOTAL OF 10.37
INCHES. THIS BROKE THE PREVIOUS RECORD OF 9.33 INCHES SET IN 1926.
NORMAL RAINFALL FOR SEPTEMBER IS 2.88 INCHES. SEPTEMBER 1ST WAS NOT
ONLY THE WETTEST SEPTEMBER 1ST OR RECORD...BUT WAS ALSO THE
WETTEST CALENDAR DAY ON RECORD AT INDIANAPOLIS WHEN 7.20 INCHES WAS
MEASURED. THE PREVIOUS CALENDAR DAY RECORD WAS 6.80 INCHES ON
SEPTEMBER 4TH 1895. A DAILY RECORD WAS ALSO SET ON SEPTEMBER 22ND
WHEN 1.22 INCHES FELL.
NORMAL CONDITIONS RETURNED FOR OCTOBER. THE FIRST FREEZING
TEMPERATURE OF THE AUTUMN SEASON OCCURRED ON THE 2ND. THE
AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR THE MONTH WAS 54.5 DEGREES WHICH WAS A
DEPARTURE OF ONLY 0.1 DEGREE BELOW NORMAL. A RECORD RAINFALL FOR THE
14TH OCCURRED WHEN 1.71 INCHES WAS MEASURED. THE MONTHLY
PRECIPITATION TOTAL WAS 2.68 INCHES WHICH WAS JUST .08 OF AN INCH
BELOW THE NORMAL.
INDIAN SUMMER ESCORTED NOVEMBER IN WHEN THE TEMPERATURE CLIMBED INTO
THE UPPER 70S. THE RECORD HIGH WAS TIED ON THE 3RD WITH 77 AND
BROKEN ON THE 4TH WITH 78. THE PREVIOUS RECORD FOR NOVEMBER 4TH WAS
76 DEGREES SET IN 1975. THE RECORD OF 78 DEGREES WAS ALSO THE
WARMEST TEMPERATURE SO LATE IN THE SEASON. THE AVERAGE MONTHLY
TEMPERATURE OF 47.3 WAS 4.4 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL. TOTAL
PRECIPITATION FOR NOVEMBER WAS 3.64 INCHES...AN AMOUNT THAT WAS 0.03
OF AN INCH ABOVE NORMAL. THE FIRST SNOWFALL OF THE SEASON OCCURRED
ON THE 24TH WHEN A TRACE WAS RECORDED. THE FIRST MEASURABLE SNOW OF
THE SEASON OCCURRED ON THE 28TH WITH 0.4 OF AN INCH...WHICH WAS THE
TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE MONTH. NORMAL SNOWFALL FOR NOVEMBER IS 1.3
INCHES.
DECEMBER WAS A BIT WARMER AND WETTER THEN NORMAL. DAILY AVERAGE
TEMPERATURES WERE ABOVE NORMAL ON 18 DAYS...WITH THE MONTHS AVERAGE
OF 34.4 COMING IN 2.8 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL. SNOW FELL ON SEVERAL
DAYS BUT WAS GENERALLY LIGHT WITH THE MONTHS TOTAL OF 4.8 INCHES
COMING UP SHY OF THE NORMAL DECEMBER SNOWFALL BY 1.6 INCHES.
PRECIPITATION TOTALED 52.56 INCHES WHICH RANKS AS THE 10TH WETTEST
YEAR ON RECORD. THE WETTEST YEAR AT INDIANAPOLIS WAS IN 1876 WHEN
57.65 INCHES WERE MEASURED. PRECIPITATION RECORDS BEGAN IN
INDIANAPOLIS IN 1871.
FOR A COMPLETE VIEW OF THE WEATHER IN INDIANAPOLIS FOR 2003 VISIT
OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/IND NEW RECORDS SET THIS YEAR:
NEW RECORDS SET THIS YEAR.....
MONTH/DAY RECORD
2 /11 NEW DAILY SNOWFALL 4.6 OLD RECORD 2.5 1925
2 /22 NEW DAILY SNOWFALL 6.3 OLD RECORD 1.0 1890
2 /24 NEW SNOW DEPTH 9 OLD RECORD 6 1962
3 / 6 NEW DAILY SNOWFALL 1.8 OLD RECORD 1.8 1931
6 / 1 NEW RECORD LOW 39 OLD RECORD 40 1993
9 / 1 NEW PRECIP MAXIMUM 7.20 OLD RECORD 3.08 1926
9 /22 NEW PRECIP MAXIMUM 1.22 OLD RECORD 0.87 1951
10 /14 NEW PRECIP MAXIMUM 1.71 OLD RECORD 0.88 2001
11 / 3 NEW RECORD HIGH 77 OLD RECORD 77 1987
11 / 4 NEW RECORD HIGH 78 OLD RECORD 76 1975
TA
NNNN
