Around this date in 1803, mild weather was returning after it had been exceptionally cold for the time of year. The local Washington, D.C., press reported on May 13: “We have experienced for several days an unprecedented coldness of weather; having had the uncommon spectacle of snow in May and ice of considerable thickness having formed for several consecutive nights.”
President Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Anne Cary Randolph from Washington on May 20, said he had “frost, ice & snow, & great damage in the gardens & orchards” between May 4 and 10.
Weather historian David Ludlum reported a general snowfall of around 4 inches from Northern Virginia to Southern New England on May 4.
By May 13, Jefferson reported a more seasonable afternoon temperature of 77 degrees in Washington.
Here are other notables from this day:
- Average high: 76
- Average low: 57
- Record high: 95 (1881)
- Record low: 39 (1878)
- Record rainfall: 2.81 inches (1897)
