Weather Records on 3 May 1981

898 weather records were set or tied worldwide on 3 May 1981. Highest significance: Bhubaneswar, IN.

Key Facts for 3 May 1981

On 3 May 1981, 898 weather records were set or tied at long-record stations worldwide.
207 were record highs and 418 were record lows, counting maximum and minimum temperature.
By timescale, 1 were all-time records, 62 monthly and 835 daily.
Bhubaneswar set an all-time record daily precipitation of 329.9 mm (13.0 in) on 3 May 1981.
Across 168 earlier years (1795 to 2026) the same calendar date averaged 430 records.

Record Map

898 stations

898 station records on 3 May 1981 are marked on the map, coloured by record type. Dot size shows the significance score. Made with Natural Earth.

Weather records on 3 May 1981: highest significance records shown on the map
Station	Country	Type	Value	Significance
Bhubaneswar	India	Record daily precipitation	329.9 mm (13.0 in)	78 of 100 (Major)
Hayden	United States	Record daily precipitation	28.2 mm (1.1 in)	61 of 100 (Major)
Cheshme	Turkmenistan	Record daily precipitation	30.8 mm (1.2 in)	59 of 100 (Notable)
Tedzhen	Turkmenistan	Record daily precipitation	47.3 mm (1.9 in)	58 of 100 (Notable)
Obluce	Russia	Record daily precipitation	34.8 mm (1.4 in)	56 of 100 (Notable)
Ignacio 1 N	United States	Record daily precipitation	26.9 mm (1.1 in)	56 of 100 (Notable)
Houston William P Hobby AP	United States	Record daily precipitation	240.8 mm (9.5 in)	54 of 100 (Notable)
George W 2 SSW	United States	Record daily precipitation	145.8 mm (5.7 in)	53 of 100 (Notable)
Washington Sp	United States	Record daily precipitation	84.8 mm (3.3 in)	52 of 100 (Notable)
Cheyenne	United States	Record daily precipitation	31.2 mm (1.2 in)	52 of 100 (Notable)
Steamboat Springs	United States	Record daily precipitation	30.2 mm (1.2 in)	51 of 100 (Notable)
Shoshone	United States	Record daily precipitation	36.6 mm (1.4 in)	50 of 100 (Notable)
Ferrara	Italy	Record daily precipitation	51.8 mm (2.0 in)	49 of 100 (Notable)
Vallecito Dam	United States	Record daily precipitation	29.5 mm (1.2 in)	46 of 100 (Notable)
Port O'Connor	United States	Record daily precipitation	120.9 mm (4.8 in)	45 of 100 (Notable)
Kaka	Turkmenistan	Record daily precipitation	26.5 mm (1.0 in)	44 of 100 (Notable)
Falls City 7 WSW	United States	Record daily precipitation	107.2 mm (4.2 in)	44 of 100 (Notable)
Chippewa Valley Rgnl AP	United States	Record daily precipitation	51.3 mm (2.0 in)	44 of 100 (Notable)
Bomnak	Russia	Record daily precipitation	31.7 mm (1.2 in)	43 of 100 (Notable)
Sogndal - Selseng	Norway	Record snow depth	122.0 cm (48.0 in)	42 of 100 (Notable)
Resolute Cars	Canada	Record daily snowfall	6.3 cm (2.5 in)	41 of 100 (Notable)
Castle Rock	United States	Record high minimum temperature	7.8 C (46.0 F)	41 of 100 (Notable)
Taos	United States	Record high minimum temperature	10.0 C (50.0 F)	41 of 100 (Notable)
Omaha Eppley Airfield	United States	Record daily precipitation	55.9 mm (2.2 in)	41 of 100 (Notable)
Vasteras-Hasslo	Sweden	Record low maximum temperature	4.2 C (39.6 F)	40 of 100 (Notable)
Pitea	Sweden	Record low maximum temperature	-0.1 C (31.8 F)	40 of 100 (Notable)
Espanola	United States	Record high minimum temperature	12.2 C (54.0 F)	40 of 100 (Notable)
Nazare	Brazil	Record daily precipitation	50.0 mm (2.0 in)	38 of 100 (Notable)
Matagorda #2	United States	Record daily precipitation	122.7 mm (4.8 in)	38 of 100 (Notable)
Three Rivers	United States	Record daily precipitation	80.0 mm (3.1 in)	38 of 100 (Notable)
Lismore (Centre Street)	Australia	Record daily precipitation	75.0 mm (3.0 in)	37 of 100 (Notable)
Nicosia	Cyprus	Record low maximum temperature	19.7 C (67.5 F)	37 of 100 (Notable)
Gaudan-In-Turkmen	Turkmenistan	Record daily precipitation	27.8 mm (1.1 in)	37 of 100 (Notable)
Rifle	United States	Record daily precipitation	30.2 mm (1.2 in)	37 of 100 (Notable)
Bernalillo	United States	Record high minimum temperature	15.6 C (60.1 F)	37 of 100 (Notable)
Springer	United States	Record high minimum temperature	11.1 C (52.0 F)	37 of 100 (Notable)
Wausau ASOS	United States	Record daily precipitation	41.7 mm (1.6 in)	37 of 100 (Notable)
Ahuacatlan	Mexico	Record low maximum temperature	27.8 C (82.0 F)	36 of 100 (Notable)
Webster	United States	Record high maximum temperature	30.6 C (87.1 F)	36 of 100 (Notable)
Rochester Intl AP	United States	Record daily precipitation	27.2 mm (1.1 in)	36 of 100 (Notable)
Port Hastings	Canada	Record daily precipitation	26.6 mm (1.0 in)	35 of 100 (Notable)
Knin	Croatia	Record daily precipitation	35.5 mm (1.4 in)	34 of 100 (Routine)
Ljusnedal	Sweden	Record low minimum temperature	-17.5 C (0.5 F)	34 of 100 (Routine)
Akron 4 E	United States	Record high maximum temperature	28.9 C (84.0 F)	34 of 100 (Routine)
De Funiak Springs 1 E	United States	Record low minimum temperature	4.4 C (39.9 F)	34 of 100 (Routine)
Forsyth 6 NNW	United States	Record low minimum temperature	3.3 C (37.9 F)	34 of 100 (Routine)
Silver Lake Brighton	United States	Record daily precipitation	31.8 mm (1.3 in)	34 of 100 (Routine)
Vancouver Harbour CS	Canada	Record daily precipitation	31.2 mm (1.2 in)	33 of 100 (Routine)
Keams Canyon	United States	Record high minimum temperature	7.2 C (45.0 F)	33 of 100 (Routine)
Sugarloaf Rsvr	United States	Record high minimum temperature	0.0 C (32.0 F)	33 of 100 (Routine)
Lexington	United States	Record low minimum temperature	-0.6 C (30.9 F)	33 of 100 (Routine)
Morganton	United States	Record low minimum temperature	-1.1 C (30.0 F)	33 of 100 (Routine)
Beeville 5 NE	United States	Record daily precipitation	74.4 mm (2.9 in)	33 of 100 (Routine)
Ocampo	Mexico	Record low maximum temperature	22.2 C (72.0 F)	32 of 100 (Routine)
Krasnyj Jar	Russia	Record daily precipitation	25.7 mm (1.0 in)	32 of 100 (Routine)
Sugarloaf Rsvr	United States	Record high maximum temperature	17.8 C (64.0 F)	32 of 100 (Routine)
Waycross 4 NE	United States	Record low minimum temperature	3.9 C (39.0 F)	32 of 100 (Routine)
Bay City Wtr Wks	United States	Record daily precipitation	40.6 mm (1.6 in)	32 of 100 (Routine)
Presa Pucuato	Mexico	Record low maximum temperature	15.0 C (59.0 F)	31 of 100 (Routine)
Mtunzini	South Africa	Record daily precipitation	75.0 mm (3.0 in)	31 of 100 (Routine)

Counts by Type and Timescale

898 records

Records set or tied on 3 May 1981 by type: Highest daily maximum 47, Lowest daily maximum 183, Highest daily minimum 160, Lowest daily minimum 235, Heaviest daily rainfall 263, Heaviest daily snowfall 7, Deepest snow cover 3.

Records on 3 May 1981 by type
Record type	Records
Highest daily maximum	47
Lowest daily maximum	183
Highest daily minimum	160
Lowest daily minimum	235
Heaviest daily rainfall	263
Heaviest daily snowfall	7
Deepest snow cover	3

Records on 3 May 1981 by timescale: all-time 1, monthly 62, daily 835.

How Much Records Were Beaten By

719 broken records

Margins by which the 719 broken records beat the old ones, in degrees Celsius for temperature and millimetres for precipitation and snow; the largest margin was 260.0. Ties are not counted.

Top 20 by Significance

3 May 1981

Top 20 records on 3 May 1981 by significance
Date	Station	Record	Value	Beat old record by	Old record stood	Significance
3 May 1981	Bhubaneswar, IN	all-time rain	329.9 mm (13.0 in)	65.7 mm (2.6 in)	43 years	78 of 100 (Major)
3 May 1981	Hayden, US	daily rain	28.2 mm (1.1 in)	22.4 mm (0.9 in)	47 years	61 of 100 (Major)
3 May 1981	Cheshme, TM	monthly rain	30.8 mm (1.2 in)	14.2 mm (0.6 in)	18 years	59 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Tedzhen, TM	monthly rain	47.3 mm (1.9 in)	17.3 mm (0.7 in)	21 years	58 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Obluce, RU	daily rain	34.8 mm (1.4 in)	24.3 mm (1.0 in)	40 years	56 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Ignacio 1 N, US	daily rain	26.9 mm (1.1 in)	17.2 mm (0.7 in)	55 years	56 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Houston William P Hobby AP, US	monthly rain	240.8 mm (9.5 in)	79.5 mm (3.1 in)	12 years	54 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	George W 2 SSW, US	monthly rain	145.8 mm (5.7 in)	42.2 mm (1.7 in)	44 years	53 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Washington Sp, US	daily rain	84.8 mm (3.3 in)	54.3 mm (2.1 in)	64 years	52 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Cheyenne, US	daily rain	31.2 mm (1.2 in)	21.5 mm (0.8 in)	48 years	52 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Steamboat Springs, US	daily rain	30.2 mm (1.2 in)	18.0 mm (0.7 in)	42 years	51 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Shoshone, US	monthly rain	36.6 mm (1.4 in)	7.4 mm (0.29 in)	65 years	50 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Ferrara, IT	daily rain	51.8 mm (2.0 in)	29.1 mm (1.1 in)	10 years	49 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Vallecito Dam, US	daily rain	29.5 mm (1.2 in)	25.7 mm (1.0 in)	2 years	46 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Port O'Connor, US	daily rain	120.9 mm (4.8 in)	91.2 mm (3.6 in)	8 years	45 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Kaka, TM	daily rain	26.5 mm (1.0 in)	20.9 mm (0.8 in)	20 years	44 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Falls City 7 WSW, US	daily rain	107.2 mm (4.2 in)	69.1 mm (2.7 in)	27 years	44 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Chippewa Valley Rgnl AP, US	daily rain	51.3 mm (2.0 in)	46.0 mm (1.8 in)	6 years	44 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Bomnak, RU	daily rain	31.7 mm (1.2 in)	17.4 mm (0.7 in)	31 years	43 of 100 (Notable)
3 May 1981	Sogndal - Selseng, NO	daily snow depth	122.0 cm (48.0 in)	26.0 cm (10.2 in)	78 years	42 of 100 (Notable)

Significance is a score from 0 to 100 combining margin, the age of the old record and the length of the station's record. How it is computed.

The Same Date in Other Years

1795 to 1981

Records set or tied on this calendar date in each year from 1795 to 1981. 1981 had 898 records.

Counts for years before the ledger starts come from the same station rules.

Records on 05-03 in each year
Year	Records
1795	1
1796	1
1799	1
1820	1
1832	1
1836	2
1837	1
1845	1
1849	1
1850	5
1851	2
1852	1
1855	1
1861	1
1864	2
1866	1
1868	1
1869	1
1870	1
1871	1
1873	1
1874	1
1875	1
1877	1
1878	4
1879	2
1881	1
1883	1
1884	1
1885	1
1886	3
1887	3
1888	1
1889	3
1891	2
1892	4
1893	1
1894	4
1896	2
1897	3
1898	5
1899	3
1900	2
1901	4
1902	5
1903	7
1904	7
1905	23
1906	10
1907	25
1908	8
1909	22
1910	17
1911	31
1912	17
1913	125
1914	10
1915	28
1916	52
1917	36
1918	28
1919	77
1920	37
1921	42
1922	292
1923	69
1924	55
1925	126
1926	250
1927	78
1928	255
1929	329
1930	279
1931	141
1932	136
1933	376
1934	353
1935	644
1936	356
1937	240
1938	527
1939	331
1940	550
1941	456
1942	1,161
1943	417
1944	728
1945	486
1946	353
1947	879
1948	919
1949	761
1950	854
1951	336
1952	447
1953	373
1954	1,210
1955	811
1956	590
1957	292
1958	485
1959	817
1960	280
1961	389
1962	243
1963	360
1964	908
1965	372
1966	850
1967	1,122
1968	324
1969	404
1970	464
1971	600
1972	380
1973	486
1974	323
1975	475
1976	760
1977	426
1978	1,046
1979	1,217
1980	573
1981	898
1982	564
1983	1,768
1984	807
1985	1,152
1986	965
1987	1,122
1988	782
1989	563
1990	1,715
1991	987
1992	792
1993	824
1994	703
1995	1,050
1996	1,058
1997	933
1998	910
1999	872
2000	1,056
2001	1,541
2002	1,312
2003	934
2004	1,562
2005	1,570
2006	633
2007	693
2008	981
2009	650
2010	1,565
2011	970
2012	1,318
2013	1,562
2014	553
2015	466
2016	505
2017	458
2018	1,004
2019	562
2020	506
2021	491
2022	570
2023	846
2024	627
2025	475
2026	879

Download the Data

Data for records on 1981-05-03: CSV or JSON. Field meanings are on the data page.

Sources: Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Climatology Network Daily (GHCN-Daily). Records are computed by World Extreme Weather Monitor and are not official NOAA products. (US Government open data (NOAA NCEI)) Made with Natural Earth. Public domain map data. Borders are Natural Earth's de facto depiction. Data as of 2026-10-16 (16 October 2026). Records are computed by this site and are not official.

Data as of 2026-10-16. Last revised 16 October 2026 (2026-10-16).

Margin	Records
0 to 50	711
50 to 100	7
100 to 150	0
150 to 200	0
200 to 250	0
250 to 300	1