2 lightning, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 2 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Melbourne, FL wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 25, 1:42 PM EST, 18 minutes earlier.
EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL 242 PM EDT THU SEP 25 2003 .DISCUSSION... CURRENTLY...STORMS FIRING RATHER STRONGLY WHERE THE APPARENT HIGHEST MOISTURE AXIS WAS...OVER THE SOUTH HALF OF THE PENINSULA. EXPECT THIS ACTIVITY TO PROPAGATE NORTHWARD DUE TO OUTFLOW BOUNDARIES AND EAST COAST SEA BREEZE MOVING INLAND. WILL GO WITH SCATTERED EVENING POPS OVER THE INTERIOR AREAS...FIGURING THAT MUCH OF THE AREA IS ALREADY WORKED OVER WHICH WILL LIMIT COVERAGE. LOW LEVEL ONSHORE FLOW LOOKS LESS THAN 10 KNOTS OVERNIGHT...BUT WILL CARRY SMALL COASTAL POP SINCE THE ATMOSPHERE WILL BE VERY MOIST AND IT WILL NOT TAKE MUCH LOW LEVEL CONVERGENCE TO GENERATE SHOWERS. LARGE STORM COMPLEX IN THE GULF HAS BEEN SHIFTING SLOWLY EAST AND WILL PLAN ON IT NOT REACHING THE AREA DURING THE NIGHT. THERE WILL BE CONSIDERABLE DEBRIS CLOUDS THOUGH SO EXPECT A MOSTLY CLOUDY NIGHT. FRIDAY AND SATURDAY...GFS SUFFERING CONVECTIVE FEEDBACK AS NOTED BY NCEP DISCUSSIONS AND RATHER HIGH QPF TOTAL BULLS EYES OVER AL/GA/N FL PERIODS 2-4. MODELS ALSO DIFFER SOME IN THEIR SOLUTIONS. GFS THE MORE AGGRESSIVE IN CLOSING OFF A LOW OVER THE NORTH CENTRAL GULF/WESTERN PANHANDLE AND ITS HIGHER QPF WHILE ETA GROUP AND NGM LOOK MORE REASONABLE. MODELS AGREE ON THE BIG PICTURE...SOUTHERLY FLOW AHEAD OF APPROACHING COOL FRONT AND WESTERN PERIPHERY OF HIGH PRESSURE RETREATING INTO THE WESTERN ATLANTIC WILL BRING INCREASING LOW LEVEL MOISTURE AND LIKELY POPS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY. SUNDAY...GFS QPF PROBLEM NOT AS NOTICEABLE WITH THE ERRONEOUS AREAS IN THE ATLANTIC AND THE PRESSURE PATTERN LOOKING MORE BELIEVABLE THAN THE PREVIOUS 2 DAYS. FRONT PUSHING ACROSS NORTHERN CWA EARLY IN THE DAY THEN THE SOUTHERN CWA SUNDAY NIGHT. WILL GO WITH A NORTH TO SOUTH/20 TO 40 POPS AS THE FRONT MOVES DOWN THE PENINSULA. THE DISSIPATING TAILEND OF THE FRONT SHOULD CLEAR THE CWA OVERNIGHT SUNDAY BUT RESIDUAL MOISTURE WILL LINGER OVER THE SOUTHERN 3 COUNTIES INTO THE WORK WEEK. EXTENDED...BRISK NORTHEAST FLOW ON MONDAY WITH HIGHER MOISTURE REMAINING OVER THE SOUTHERN PORTION OF THE STATE GIVES WAY TO EASTERLY FLOW STARTING TUESDAY. THIS FLOW OVER THE WARM ATLANTIC WATERS WILL MODERATE THE AIR MASS QUICKLY...SO JUST EXPECT SLIGHTLY BELOW CLIMO TEMPERATURES ON MONDAY...THEN A RETURN TO CLIMO TUESDAY THROUGH THURSDAY. .MARINE...EAST TO SOUTHEAST FLOW WILL CONTINUE THROUGH FRIDAY. THE APPROACH OF A COOL FRONT VEERS THE WIND TO THE SOUTH SATURDAY AND THE SOUTHWEST SUNDAY AS THE FRONT MOVES ACROSS AL/GA. WINDS AND SEAS WILL INCREASE SUNDAY WITH THE PASSAGE OF THE FRONT AND HIGH PRESSURE BUILDING DOWN THE COASTAL WATERS. THE GLOBAL WAVE WATCH MODEL DEVELOPS NORTHEAST SWELLS MONDAY AND CONTINUES THEM THROUGH TUESDAY. SWELLS LOOK TO BE A RESULT OF A NORTHEAST PRESSURE GRADIENT BETWEEN THE BUILDING HIGH CENTERED OVER KY/TN AND THE LONG TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE EXTENDING FROM AROUND BERMUDA TO CUBA AND ONTO THE NORTHWEST CARIBBEAN. ON A SIDE NOTE FOR NEXT COUPLE DAYS CWF/S...GWW SWELLS WED/THU LOOK WAY OVERDONE DUE TO HIGHER GFS/GWW WINDS. .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... DAB TT 071/084 073/084 073 264 MCO TT 072/086 071/086 071 364 MLB TT 072/085 074/085 074 264 VRB TT 072/085 074/084 074 264 .MLB...WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE. SHORT TERM...LASCODY LONG TERM....WIMMER
AMZ550-555-570-575-FLZ041-044>047-053-054-058-059-064-141-144-147- 252000- EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL 1140 AM EDT THU SEP 25 2003 .DAY ONE...TODAY: A MORE MOIST AND UNSTABLE ATMOSPHERE ACROSS THE AREA TODAY WILL LEAD TO A GREATER COVERAGE OF STORMS COMPARED TO YESTERDAY. THE MAIN FOCUS WILL BE THE INLAND MOVING SEA BREEZE BOUNDARY. THE GREATEST COVERAGE WILL BE OVER INTERIOR COUNTIES DURING THE LATE AFTERNOON AS BOUNDARY INTERACTIONS INCREASE. A FEW OF THESE STORMS COULD BECOME STRONG WITH FREQUENT LIGHTNING AND GUSTY WINDS. STORMS WILL BE SLOW MOVING...GENERALLY NORTHWEST TO NORTH AROUND 5 MPH. THIS WILL LEAD TO THE POTENTIAL FOR LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL OF 2 TO 3 INCHES IN SOME LOCATIONS...CAUSING TEMPORARY FLOODING OF LOW LYING AND POOR DRAINAGE AREAS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY: SCATTERED AFTERNOON LIGHTNING STORMS CAN BE EXPECTED THROUGH THE WEEKEND. COVERAGE MAY START TO DECREASE EARLY NEXT WEEK AS A WEAKENING FRONTAL BOUNDARY SLIDES INTO SOUTH FLORIDA. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED TODAY. FOR A GRAPHICAL VERSION OF THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...GO TO WWW.WEATHER.GOV AND CLICK ON EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA. RL
FLZ058-251830- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL 139 PM EDT THU SEP 25 2003 ...STRONG STORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING WIND GUSTS UP TO 50 MPH OVER OKEECHOBEE COUNTY... AT 134 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A STORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING STRONG WIND GUSTS 13 MILES SOUTH OF FORT DRUM...MOVING NORTH AT 10 MPH. FREQUENT LIGHTNING WAS ALSO OCCURRING WITH THIS STORM. RL
The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 18:58 UTC.
2 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
A female student was burned by a piece of power transformer on top of a pole that was struck by lightning. Pieces of the shattered transformer flew through an open window on a school bus and landed on the student's leg.
A 22 year old man was killed by lightning while fishing under a gazebo at the end of a short pier in a lake. Two teen age boys who were also in the gazebo when the lightning struck were injured.
As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.
| Event | Date | Age | Sex | Where | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lightning, Seminole | 2003-09-25 | 22 | Male | Outside/Open Areas | Direct |
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Florida in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Florida, September 2003
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5336957, 5336958.