The 2003 season

Tropical Storm Grace (2003)

Tropical Storm Grace peaked at 35 kt in the North Atlantic between August 30, 2003 and September 2, 2003, with a lowest pressure of 1007 mb, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Grace. Open it to see storms, cones and warnings on the map.

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Radar mosaic and map layers from NOAA MRMS. Boundaries from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

The storm

Basin
North Atlantic
Dates
August 30, 2003 to September 2, 2003
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 35 kt (40 mph)
Lowest pressure
1007 mb (29.74 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.5
Tropical-storm-force wind reached
180 nmi (333 km, 207 mi) from the center at its widest
Eyewall radius at its peak
20 nmi (37 km, 23 mi)
Overall size
150 nmi (278 km, 173 mi) to the outermost closed isobar
Fastest the center moved
24 kt (28 mph)
Identifier
AL112003

Radar at KHGX as it neared land, Aug 31, 11:00 UTC

Deaths and damage

The sources count different things and are not added together.

NOAA Storm Events

0 deaths (0 direct, 0 indirect)$113,000

What National Weather Service offices recorded county by county in 1 states and marine areas, in the United States only. Property and crop damage as each office estimated it, which is not a national loss total.

Landfall

Time (UTC)WherePositionWindPressure
Aug 31, 11:00Surfside Beach, TX, 19 km away29.0N 95.1W35 kt (40 mph)1007 mb

Landfall points the US agencies flagged in the best track. The nearest town is named from the site’s gazetteer, not from the report.

In the United States

NOAA’s Storm Events database, the record National Weather Service offices compile months after a storm, as compiled March 2026.

Deaths
0 (0 direct, 0 indirect)
Injuries
0
Property damage
$113,000
Crop damage
none recorded
Events recorded
11 in 2 reports from 1 states and marine areas

State by state

State or marine areaDeathsInjuriesDamageEvents
Texas00$113,00011

What was recorded

11 tropical storm.

Rainfall

The Weather Prediction Center attributes 3,872 rain gauge totals over the contiguous United States to this storm. The wettest reached 9.50 inches (241 mm).

StationTotalPosition
MATAGORDA NO 29.50 in (241 mm)28.68N 95.97W
HUNTSVILLE MUNICIPAL AP8.68 in (220 mm)30.74N 95.59W
BEAUMONT RESEARCH CTR7.76 in (197 mm)30.07N 94.29W
HARDY7.46 in (189 mm)36.27N 91.51W
HAGERSTOWN POLICE BRK6.75 in (171 mm)39.60N 77.73W
LUMBERTON6.73 in (171 mm)30.25N 94.18W
HARDINSBURG6.52 in (166 mm)37.78N 86.46W
WILDWOOD6.48 in (165 mm)30.53N 94.45W
SEBREE 1 E6.44 in (164 mm)37.60N 87.52W
VANLEER6.40 in (163 mm)36.21N 87.47W
PORT ARTHUR CITY6.20 in (157 mm)29.90N 93.97W
DONIPHAN6.20 in (157 mm)36.62N 90.81W

WPC’s storm rainfall file, 1900 to 2020, compiled by David Roth.

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Aug 30, 12:0024.3N 92.4W30 kt1008 mbTropical depression
Aug 30, 18:0024.9N 93.3W35 kt1009 mbTropical storm
Aug 31, 00:0025.8N 94.3W35 kt1009 mbTropical storm
Aug 31, 06:0027.2N 94.9W35 kt1008 mbTropical storm
Aug 31, 11:00 landfall29.0N 95.1W35 kt1007 mbTropical storm
Aug 31, 12:0029.4N 95.2W35 kt1007 mbTropical storm
Aug 31, 18:0030.1N 95.6W30 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Sep 1, 00:0030.9N 96.4W25 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Sep 1, 06:0031.9N 96.6W20 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Sep 1, 12:0032.6N 96.5W20 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Sep 1, 18:0033.6N 95.7W20 kt1011 mbTropical depression
Sep 2, 00:0034.1N 95.0W15 kt1011 mbTropical depression
Sep 2, 06:0034.6N 94.5W15 kt1013 mbTropical depression

Other North Atlantic storms of 2003

What this means

A best track is the record a warning agency settles on after the storm, not what it said at the time: position, maximum sustained wind and central pressure every six hours, revised against every observation that came in later. Category is the Saffir-Simpson scale, which runs from Category 1 at 64 kt to Category 5 at 137 kt and reads wind only, so it says nothing about surge or rain. Accumulated cyclone energy adds up the square of the wind through the storm's life, so it counts strength and duration together.

Sources

Storm history from NOAA NCEI’s International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS), which merges the official best track of every warning agency. Live storms, cones, watches and warnings from the National Hurricane Center and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Archived radar from NOAA’s Level II archive.