A winter storm ushered in the new year as 3.2 inches of snow fell on New Years Day 2003. However, after this wintry start, the rest of the month would go down in the record books as warm and dry. An additional 0.2 inches of snow was all that fell during the remainder of the month. Meanwhile, January temperatures averaged 5.4 degrees above normal with a mild 72 degree high temperature occurring on the 27th.
February was cooler and wetter than normal. The average temperature was 3.6 degrees below normal, and below zero temperatures were reported during the early morning hours of the 23rd-25th. The coldest temperature for February, and also for the entire year of 2003 so far, was -8 degrees on the 23rd. Two significant storm systems brought snow during the month, with 5.3 inches falling on February 3rd and 4.1 inches on February 22-23. This brought monthly precipitation slightly above normal.
Average temperatures during the months of March and April were around 3 degrees above normal each month with rainfall at or slightly above average. Only 1.7 inches of snow fell during March, but this was supplemented with a round of rainfall totaling 1.17 inch on March 18-19. The maximum temperature during the month of March was 84 degrees on the 14th. In April, a wet 2.1 inches of snow fell on the 5th-6th, but with temperatures climbing into the 70s and 80s a few days later, the snow didn't last long. Several rounds of showers and thunderstorms later in the month brought the April precipitation total up to 1.71 inches.
Although temperatures in May averaged close to normal, the 29th stands out as unusually hot as the mercury topped out at 104 degrees, followed up by a 94 degree reading on the 30th. Precipitation totaled 2.35 inches which was over an inch below the long term average. May was a quiet severe weather month, with only 15 reports of severe weather logged at the Goodland NWS office. However, May 8th was noteworthy in that collapsing thunderstorms brought a swath of 70 mph winds along the I-70 corridor in Sherman and Thomas counties.
Prospects looked good for a change in the long-standing drought pattern over northwest Kansas as June rainfall totaled almost 5 inches, which is one and two-thirds inches above normal. Precipitation was recorded on 16 of the 30 days In June. The frequent rainfall and associated cloud cover translated into a cooler than normal month with temperatures averaging 2.5 degrees below normal. The month of June was active in terms of severe thunderstorms. Severe weather occurred on 11 days in June with 92 reports of wind, hail and tornadoes filed. June 1st has been called "the attack of the landspouts". Ten weak tornadoes developed during the early afternoon hours, with three in Sherman county and seven occurring just across the state line in eastern Colorado. These tornadoes developed when a stationary surface boundary interacted with a thunderstorm outflow. The collision resulted in intense updrafts above the boundary, spinning up numerous tornadoes, some lasting 15 minutes. Two other tornadoes in northwest Kansas occurred near Hill City in Graham county on the 9th.
July was warm and dry across northwest Kansas. Temperatures rose above 100 degrees on 15 days, with a 105 degree reading on July 25. 1.12 inches of rain fell during the month with the majority of that occurring on only two days. During July, storm spotters, law enforcement and the general public called in 40 severe weather events to the Goodland office. These were mostly wind and hail, but northern Cheyenne county was on the receiving end of three weak tornadoes during the month, with two occurring on the 6th and one on the 21st.
One other event which stands out in July was a "heat burst" which developed over Wallace and Logan counties and moved north into Sherman and Thomas counties during the evening hours of the 5th. It produced damage to barns, trees and power poles, and resulted in numerous traffic accidents as winds gusted over 70 mph and lowered visibility in blowing dirt. A heat burst is an intense thunderstorm downdraft accompanied by pronounced warming. Temperatures rose to 94 degrees at 9:30 in the evening as the strong winds arrived.
August temperatures averaged 2.6 degrees above normal while rainfall was nearly two inches below normal. Total precipitation during the month was a mere 0.52 inches, with rainfall over a tenth of an inch occurring on only two days. Except for an isolated 100 degree reading on the 20th, daytime temperatures were in the 80s and 90s. No tornadoes were logged in August, although 34 wind and hail reports were received, including one big day in the early morning hours on the 10th. Thunderstorms intensified rapidly as they moved southeast from Thomas into Logan counties. Measured winds of 85 mph occurred in Colby, and estimated gusts over 90 mph produced damage to a church in Oakley.
September brought temperatures averaging near normal while rainfall totaled only 0.36 inches, which was three-quarters of an inch below the 30 year average. Only three severe weather days were reported during September, with golfball size hail falling in Gove county on the 9th.
Temperatures in October were almost summer-like for a good portion of the month. Afternoon temperatures on five days reached 90 degrees, and a hard freeze did not occur until the 15th of the month. October was also dry with 0.07 inches of precipitation falling at the Goodland National Weather Service office, which was an inch below normal. Severe weather was reported on only one day in October as 70 mph winds blew through Goodland on the 13th.
November was a month of temperature extremes with a mild 75 degree reading occurring on the 29th of the month, just after a wintry 5 degree temperature was recorded on the morning of the 23rd. Once again, virtually no precipitation fell during the month with 0.06 inches of moisture recorded, which was 0.75 inches below normal.
The first significant snowfall of the season occurred during the month of December with nearly four and a half inches of snow falling on December 8-9 in Goodland, and nearly 7 inches reported near Dresden in Decatur county. Another inch and a half of snow fell on December 15th, accompanied by 50-60 mph winds which produced whiteout conditions for several hours in many parts of the Tri-state area. Temperatures during December averaged 3.3 degrees above normal with afternoon high temperatures in the 50s and 60s across the region the day after Christmas. Precipitation was almost a third of an inch above normal for the month at 0.71 inches, which translated to nearly 8 inches of snowfall.
David Floyd
Warning Coordination Meteorologist
National Weather Service Goodland KS
01/07/04
