NEWS AUGUST 2003
Europe suffered a major heatwave in August, resulting in sweltering temperatures across the continent. In the UK, a record 38.5°C was documented at Brogdale, near Faversham in Kent, which stood until 2019. Trains were disrupted by buckling rails, melting ice caps in the Alps caused avalanches, and shipping was disrupted in Germany due to low river levels. Worse still, an estimated 70,000 people died across the continent, with France alone suffering
14,802 losses.
On 14 August, a massive power failure affected over 50 million people in the northeast of the
USA and the Canadian province of Ontario – the second most widespread blackout in history at that point. Initial speculation pointed to lightning strikes as a cause, but it was later found to be a software bug in the system used by Ohio’s Firstenergy company.
Tragedy struck in Brazil on 22 August, days before a scheduled satellite launch, as a VLS-1 rocket exploded on its launch pad at the Alcântara launch centre. In this incident, one of the four first-stage motors accidentally ignited, destroying the rocket and causing a fire in the jungle nearby. The explosion killed 21 people stood on the launch pad, mostly scientists and engineers crucial to the country’s space ambitions.