Daily data can be accessed here.
Winter 2003/04: A mild winter, but with a few notable northerly blasts which brought some of the heaviest snowfalls since February 1991. Thus, it ended up as quite a snowy winter overall, especially by recent standards.
January: Mostly warm, dull and wet with westerly winds, and the wettest January recorded. Some marginal sleet/wet snow events around midmonth, but no accumulations. The period 18-23 January was especially driech, just dull, dry and mild. However, it turned colder and brighter in the last week, with a minor snow event overnight 26th/27th, and some heavy prolonged snow on the 28th.
February: Exceptionally mild start, contrasting with the snowy end of January, with 14.9C reached on the 3rd. The second week was mostly mild and cloudy, but the second half was exceptionally sunny. Northerly winds set in from the 23rd onwards, which initially brought mostly cold dry sunny weather, but heavy snowstorms hit the area on the 27th/28th, providing 12cm snow- the deepest snow at Cleadon since February 1991. Another mild February, despite the snowy end, and the 10th consecutive February with above average sunshine.
Spring 2004: Another warm spring, at 9.2C, the third notably warm spring in a row. It was very dull and wet in April, but this was offset by a warm sunny May.
March: Quite a mixed month, temperatures slightly above the long-term average, but rather cool by recent standards. It had a cold bright start with a rapid thaw of the late February snow cover. A mostly cold, cloudy spell up until midmonth, followed by warm showery westerlies, and hail mixed in, providing a hail cover on the 21st. However, the 22nd-25th were mostly dry and cloudy, with sunshine and showers inland. Warm end, but cloudy, with North Sea stratocumulus.
April: Another warm month- about as warm as April 2003- but this time it was the minima that were outstandingly high. Dull and wet for much of the month, although there was a warm sunny interlude around the 25th, followed by thunderstorms, and then low cloud from the North Sea. It was probably the dullest April since 1993.
May: Warm and sunny, though less so than May 2001. It began with sunshine and showers and a deep low pressure system, low cloud dominated the second week, but most of the second half was warm and sunny. Showery weather returned briefly on the 20th and 21st.
Summer 2004: The wettest summer recorded, mostly due to the exceptionally wet August. It was fairly warm due to the warm nights, while sunshine was near or slightly below average.
June: Warm, fairly sunny first half, with some anticyclonic gloom, but also some sunny days. The second half was unsettled and often showery, and quite cool, but not cool enough to offset the warm first half. The second warm June in a row, but nothing like as warm as June 2003.
July: Cool first half. It was mostly bright and showery with thunder during the first week, but cold, dull and wet during the second week. The second half was relatively warm and sunny. Overall, the coolest July since 2000, with rainfall and sunshine amounts close to normal.
August: Exceptionally wet. The first half was plagued by sea fog, while the north-east coast largely missed out on the thunderstorms that affected the rest of England, but picked up a tremendous amount of rain. The second half was much brighter, so as a whole sunshine was only a little below normal. Severe thunderstorms late on the 18th, during a brief warm sunny interlude that started on the 16th as winds stopped coming in off the North Sea. This was the wettest of any month, let alone being the wettest August!
Autumn 2004: Very wet October, sandwiched between a very dry September and November. Sunshine was well above average in September, but below in October and November.
September: Warm, sunny first third, then mostly unsettled afterwards with westerly winds, sunshine and showers, although the showers rarely amounted to much. Thus, it ended up as the driest September recorded, just beating 1996 and 1997. Temperatures were close to the long-term normal.
October: Near-average temperatures, with cool days but fairly warm nights, so it was the warmest October since 2001, following the two cold Octobers. After a fairly bright showery first week, it became mostly dull and very wet, indeed at 119mm, it was almost as wet as October 2000.
November: An extremely boring month with a lot of anticyclonic gloom. Quite mild, for the fourth consecutive November. A brief cold snap 18th-20th, but no snow. It was the driest November recorded, and the dullest since 1997.
December: Dull, dry, anticyclonic first half, but the very sunny second half more than compensated, resulting in a sunny month overall. There was a brief cold snap around the 18th-20th, with a little snow. The Christmas Day cold snap resulted in cold dry sunny weather on the big day itself, and then rain showers late on Boxing Day. Quite a mild month,
Overall, at 10.1C, another warm year, same mean temperature as 1999, 2002 and 2003, so the warming trend is very evident. Another largely frost free year, but due to the relatively snowy winter of 2003/04, snow amounts were not far below the long-term average.
