Weather Banter - 2003 in SE Athens

Happy New Year to all!

Comments on the weather in 2003 over SE Athens:

- 2003 has been a fairly wetter year than usual, even though a few months
have been considerably drier than usual. Air temperatures were not far from
average; however, February was record cold and August was record warm. This
led to a high annual temperature range (hottest month's average temperature
minus coldest month's average temperature), ie 23.8C.

- Snow was more frequent than usual, as 20 snow days were recorded (15 in
February, 3 in March and 2 in December). There was snow lying on only 4
days.

- This part of SE Athens has been close to air frosts on several occasions
but never actually made it below 0.0C, unlike other parts of Athens, where
air frost was very frequent, primarily in February and March and secondarily
in April and December.

- Thunderstorms were quite frequent (thunder was heard on 28 days). March
and July were the only months with no thunderstorms, while December was the
most thundery month. Thunderstorms were accompanied by hail on only two
occasions.

- Tropical days were the norm in July and August, when there was no
non-tropical day (daily maximum temperature at or above +30.0C).

- Diurnal temperature ranges were lowest during the winter months and
highest in May and during the summer months.

- Precipitation was recorded on almost one third of the year's days. There
were 74 rain days, while the wettest day brought 56.1 mm of rain with it, so
not even close to being a record. There was a spell of 43 days with no
precipitation at all at this site (June 28th to August 9th), while there was
precipitation on a daily basis for 10 days from February 16th to February
25th.

- E. Athens recorded 2562.9 hours of sunshine. June was the sunniest month
with 358.6 h of sunshine, while December was the dullest month with 84.4
hours of sunshine.

A) AIR TEMPERATURE

Min temperatu +0.1C (Mar 24th)
Max min temperatu +28.1C (June 15th)
Max temperatu +40.2C (Aug 31st)
Min max temperatu +5.2C (Mar 24th)

Avg min temperatu +14.1C
Avg max temperatu +22.6C
Avg temperatu +18.27C

B) GROUND TEMPERATURE

Days with ground frost: 33
Min ground temperatu -3.8C
Ground frost free period: 244 days

C) PRECIPITATION

Days with precipitation: 119
Rain days: 74
Thunderstorm days: 28
Hail days: 2
Snow days: 20
Days with a snow cover: 4

Annual precipitation: 565.9 mm
Anomaly: 136.1% eLTA

Max rainfall intensity: 155.7 mm/h (Nov 4th)
Max 15min rainfall: 7.9 mm (Nov 4th)
Days with 10mm+: 20
Days with 20mm+: 7
Days with 30mm+: 2

Other:
Average relative humidity: 56.1%
Peak gust: 83.2 kph (51.7 mph)

All the best,

Yannis, SE Athens
+10.4C, RH 86%, SLP 1004.6 hPa, -RA
12.4 mm of rain so far today