Jump to content
Snow?
Local
Radar
Cold?
IGNORED

2013 - overview, thoughts opinions


damianslaw

Recommended Posts

Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl

As we are nearly at the end of 2013, thought it a good time to start a thread enabling people to express there views on the year just gone.

 

Overall it has been a year of two contrasting halves.

 

The first half on the whole cold, with northern blocking much in evidence. The second half much milder than normal with long settled periods, but with a wild end.

 

The highlights for me being:

 

1. Mid-late January, after another wet very mild christmas-new period ... mmm becoming used to these now.. third on the trot.. we enjoyed a wintry snowy spell culminating in an 8 inch fall on the 25th/26th.

 

2. March - notable cold with snow sticking around for ages with a very cold easter.

 

3. July - a wonderful month with proper heat and sunshine, best spell of summer weather for 7 years.

 

Low points:

 

1. Start to the year, as mentioned far too mild and wet and dull for my liking.

 

2. Slow start to summer, May and much of June very dissapointing with only the odd summer like day here and there.

 

3. October  - too mild for my liking, very slow start to autumn culminating in dank overcast mild southwesterlies..horrible.

 

4. December - a write off month for cold snow lovers.. a woeful christmas period, third wet mild windy one in a row.. hopefully fortunes will change for next year.

 

Overall quite an interesting year weatherwise, with a mix of everything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Jaywick, Essex, 3m
  • Location: Jaywick, Essex, 3m

Liked:

 

Summer. Was nice and warm.

 

Disliked:

 

November and December.Far too mild, stormy and miserable in general.

 

Indifferent:

 

Spring and Autumb in general, because I only like summer and winter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Darlington
  • Weather Preferences: Warm dry summers
  • Location: Darlington

My highlights

 

Much better summer than previous ones since 2007 though June was a slow start

 

Extended heatwave in July the best spell of weather in summer for 7 years

 

Good August with the temperature failing to get above 20c on only 6 days here also the driest August here since 2010 with 56mm of rain

 

The persistence of the warm / mild weather through September and into October

 

Disliked

 

March probably a one in x amount of year events through everything back meaning a very late start to spring and caused major problems for farmers

 

First half of June was a slow start to summer though it did improve from the 16th

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: N.Bedfordshire, E.Northamptonshire
  • Weather Preferences: Cool not cold, warm not hot. No strong Wind.
  • Location: N.Bedfordshire, E.Northamptonshire

Disliked the long drawn out winter and short/missing Spring, but loved the summer and autumn.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LIked - A Good snowy spell in January with a major snow event

 

A very good June, extremely good July, and August better than recent years.

 

Disliked - the Autumn / Winter period which has been too wet with a lack of any real wintriness.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: South Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Warm and sunny
  • Location: South Cheshire

Awful up to mid April, too cold for too long, excellent summer especially June and July, average autumn, liking the mild start to winter but would prefer it to be a lot drier.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Dunoon, Argyll Scotland
  • Location: Dunoon, Argyll Scotland

For my location,

 

Liked

 

February mostly settled, sunny and cold overall one of the best February's in a while.

March similar to February mostly settled but overall colder.

July high pressure sticks around for weeks at a time giving sunny and warm weather.

August most of the time it was good and summer like although a few unsettled days were about.

September mostly settled throughout. End of the second week a low hits Scotland giving very windy weather.

October mainly settled but the final week a little more unsettled.

November mostly settled but at times unsettled the short cold spell at the end saved this month.

 

Disliked

 

January had decent cold weather at times but mostly it was wet and windy towards the end and stormy at times.

April mostly unsettled for 3 weeks but the final week got better, overall though nothing special.

May low pressure staying around giving cloudy conditions and boring weather.

June similar to May but the final week gets warmer and sunnier.

December six storms hit the UK some being very severe. No Christmas weather in sight. Mainly cloudy and very wet,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District South Pennines Middleton & Smerrill Tops 305m (1001ft) asl.
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District South Pennines Middleton & Smerrill Tops 305m (1001ft) asl.

March will never be forgotten round here, the snow depths really were something, drifts up to the bedroom window sills.

 

Wouldn't mind another.

 

Overall it's been a very interesting year for weather, had a bit of everything to keep me interested, it's been a long time since we have had storms as of late.

Edited by Polar Maritime
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Home: Bournemouth (Iford) Work: Eastleigh
  • Location: Home: Bournemouth (Iford) Work: Eastleigh

Favourite bit = July

 

worst bit = March/start of April

 

other bits of note as already mentioned really. Enjoyed the January snow ("working at home" day). May was rubbish again - could do with another May 2008 repeat before too long. I was away in Sri Lanka at the start of June but it wasn't that bad down here at the end...i definitely got sunburned at the end of june. august was pretty good down on the south coast as well - fantastic bournemouth air festival weekend.

 

abiding memory = no fishing opportunities between mid june and the end of august were turned down due to adverse weather! a first for a good few years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Ribble Valley
  • Location: Ribble Valley

For me it was a terrible January, February and a barnstorming March. April and the first half of May weren't to clever either but from June we had probably the best Summer for over a decade around these parts with this extending into Autumn, unfortunately I like stormy Autumns. December has been, err wet with the occasional dusting of snow but very little in the way of frost.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Droylsden, Manchester, 94 metres/308 feet ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Dry/mild/warm/sunny/high pressure/no snow/no rain
  • Location: Droylsden, Manchester, 94 metres/308 feet ASL

For me the overriding memory of this years weather was the coldest Spring in 50 years (especially late March waking up at a mates house in Huddersfield to huge snow drifts up the walls and everywhere else!).............and the long overdue nice hot July.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam

January was a funny old month, a two week cold spell sandwiched between two milder spells.

February for the thunder snow event that Monday evening

March was remarkable, how many thought that it would be that cold after the first week. Easter wasn't actually that bad.

April was nothing to write home about.

A beautiful May Day bank holiday

June nothing to write home about.

July, a lovely summer month

August was OK

Disappointing summer, thunder wise again.

The rest of the year has been forgettable largely although it was thunderier than the summer.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Fazendas de,Almeirim, Portugal
  • Weather Preferences: The most likely outcome. The MJO is only half the story!
  • Location: Fazendas de,Almeirim, Portugal

A winter that came good in the third week of January with some decent snowfallsPosted Image

 

A sublime March with drifting powder snow storm, searingly cold near gale force easterlies, and consecutive ice days close to mid monthPosted Image The snow from this stuck around for days afterwards  - especially the driftsPosted Image

 

A lovely pleasantly warm and quiet summer - ideal for mePosted Image

 

Then the longer it went into autumn/start of winter, and, most especially of all of course this month then the more and more forgettable it has becomePosted Image Posted Image

Edited by Tamara תָּמָר
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Keyingham, East Yorkshire
  • Weather Preferences: Spanish plumes, hot and sunny with thunderstorms
  • Location: Keyingham, East Yorkshire

3 things that i will recall from 2013 in years to come:

 

The extremely cold March and the neverending wait for Spring to arrive

 

The first very warm Summer month for ages and the long overdue visit of a proper Summer high pressure

 

The storm surge of early December

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: South Manchester. Summer=LV-426. Other=Azeroth
  • Weather Preferences: Cold, cold, cold and errrr......cold. I am, unashamedly, a cold fan.
  • Location: South Manchester. Summer=LV-426. Other=Azeroth

Liked: Mid Jan to mid June was quite cold and fresh.....lovely.

 

Hated: Summer....too warm and seemed to go on forever although had a great storm gust as the cold front moved in to end it lol.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Yorkshire Puddin' aka Kirkham, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom
  • Weather Preferences: cold winters, cold springs, cold summers and cold autumns
  • Location: Yorkshire Puddin' aka Kirkham, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom

This has been one of the most ridiculous years ever.  Despite 7 months coming in below the 1961-1990 CET average (the first six consecutive and the longest run of such months since December 1978-June 1979!) 2013 will still finish above the 1961-1990 average.  2013 was also ridiculous in that an exceptional cold month (March) was followed by 4 exceptionally mild months in the same year (July, August, October and December).  This is forgetting to also mention that an exceptionally cold spring led to an exceptionally warm summer and yet another exceptionally mild autumn.  2013 also had an exceptional cold first half of the year followed by one of the mildest second halves of the year on record.  Before July reared its ugly head 2013 had a very good chance of finishing below 9C but thanks(!) to July, August, October and December 2013 will finish above the 1961-1990 average yet again.

 

Here is all 12 months rated out of 10:-

January 10/10 (cool with big pattern changes)

February 10/10 (seasonally cool and a buildup to a very classic cold spring)

March 10/10 (classic cold March)

April 10/10 (a rare cool and sunshine and showers April with switcharounds)

May 10/10 (a rare cool and sunshine and showers May)

June 10/10 (nice and fresh and the end of a great run of cool/cold months)

July 1/10 (horrible, hot and humid with the return with avengeance of the Euro High and GIN Corridor Jetstream.  Also brought back bad memories of the hot summers of 2003 and 2006)

August 1/10 (horrible, hot and humid).

September 1/10 (a classic early spell of cool zonality ruined by reminders of July 2013)

October 1/10 (more horrible mild rubbish)

November 10/10 (a rare cool seasonal November)

December 1/10 (November sadly proved to be a one-off with the return of the dreaded Bartlett High and associated mild zonality mush)

 

2013 1/10 (a classic cool Northeasterly dominated first half ruined by a very mild Bartlett High dominated second half)

This year has been so unlike 1993 which had an exceptionally mild first half of the year followed by an exceptionally cold second half.  Indeed the total opposite.

Edited by Craig Evans
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Wildwood, Stafford 104m asl
  • Weather Preferences: obviously snow!
  • Location: Wildwood, Stafford 104m asl

My favourite times weatherwise, the build up to the Jan 18th snow was fantastic on here, and was my best snow for years, and set a NW record on the 17th

 

build up to March snow i found quieter on here, but I had just the same excitement/enthusiasm was my best snow for years, I do not look for Spring in march, a lot do I know, but march is a snow month!

 

April was a good month, still fully intact snowmen, cold frosty start, April to me is a snow month, but April '13 saw very little snow here

 

Feb could have been better, the main snow month on average, didnt have much, sprinkling on 5th, 3cms on 11th, wet dusting on 13th

 

wasnt keen on a lot of July, I remember it starting on Wimbledon mens semi's day, and lasted for 2 long weeks, not a fan of hot weather

 

but other than that not bad, dont feel as though I have had much rain, even Dec the wettest month of the year, was mostly dry, except for 1 very wet day 15th

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

The winter quarter was quite cold and snowy here, especially the 13th-25th January, but I don't remember it as fondly as the winter of 2009/10 or the early part of 2010/11, because there was a strong emphasis on grey skies and south-easterly winds during the cold spells here, rather than north-easterlies bringing sunshine and snow showers, and marginality often restricted the extent of accumulations on the ground.  Not sure what to make of March either- a remarkable month statistically but my location narrowly missed the heavier frontal snowfalls late in the month.  The main highlight was probably the north-easterly incursion around the 11th-13th which brought some impressive, but short-lived, snowstorms off the North Sea.

 

April and May were pretty forgettable but I have quite fond memories of the summer- in early June I was just far north/west enough to miss most of the low cloud from the North Sea, and July was easily the hottest and sunniest calendar month since July 2006.  I had a week's holiday in northern Leinster (Ireland) during July and it was very unusual to see Ireland having hot sunshine for days on end.  After being largely thunder-free until 22 July, the rest of the year was sometimes quite active for convective activity with a few notable thunderstorms in August and, unusually, three thunder-days between 20 October and 2 November.  However, other than that, I doubt that I'll retain many memories of the last four months of the year.

 

Overall a more interesting/eventful than average year- the only three years (since 1993) that have definitely surpassed it, to my mind, were 1995, 2003 and 2010, although there are other years, including 2005, 2006 and 2009 for instance, that were comparable.

Edited by Thundery wintry showers
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: halifax 125m
  • Weather Preferences: extremes the unusual and interesting facts
  • Location: halifax 125m

A very mixed year for hot and cold...

 

After a mild start winter came mid January and stuck around on and off until a very cold march giving the largest drifts round here since at least 1995 or maybe the early 80s and the first real blizzard since 1995.

 

The winter 2012/2013 gave the most air frosts since 1978/1979 easily eclipsing that of 2010 and even 1986..amazing....

 

The summer ,july inparticular was far better than anything since 2006...that was not hard to achieve yet when most areas seemed to be basking in sunshine we had a huge amount of that time in cloud if not all day but way too many part days it just did not seem that exceptional to me .

 

I guess the second half of the year has been very mild with some very windy weather this last couple of months and one of only 3 or so years I can remember when we have had no snow in the second half of the year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Ashbourne,County Meath,about 6 miles northwest of dublin airport. 74m ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Cold weather - frost or snow
  • Location: Ashbourne,County Meath,about 6 miles northwest of dublin airport. 74m ASL

The most stand out months of 2013 have to be of course March and July. Since july there seemed to be a pattern change resulting in with more often then not temps being above average since then.

 

Ireland didnt get as cold as the uk got for the second half of last winter as we were often on the edge of the cold. So to me Jan and Feb were nothing too special for here imo. March was a great month for cold considering it was March but any snow i got (5 mornings of lying snow) melted by the afternoon. Overall the spring was the coldest here for many years, parts of Ireland had the coldest spring in over 60 yrs.

 

The first 10 days of june were lovely here and this would be my fav part of summer 2013,clear skies and temps not too warm at about the 21c mark,after that the rest of the month was not up to much. July was a great summer month although im not a huge fan of summer heat but by the end of what was of course a warm summer overall i was more then fed up with it. I was really looking forward to autumn but that was a bit of a dud and just seemed like the continuation of summer of course the temps werent as high but sept and oct just irritated me. Nov was kind of forgettable but at least it did feel like autumn had arrived at last. Dec of course has been a dud for cold lovers but has been notable in the last few weeks as regards stormy weather.

Edited by sundog
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine and 15-25c
  • Location: Edmonton Alberta(via Chelmsford, Exeter & Calgary)

here in Calgary...Jan and Feb were mild with little or no snow falling...March and April were relatively cold and snowy...May and June were cool and wet and culminated in the worst flood in the city's history on June 21st...when hundreds of thousands were made homeless in the city and surroundings towns and countryside...July was cool and thundery...August and September were warm and sunny..Octbober was a return to real autumn...Nov and Dec were snowy up to Xmas

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Aberdeen
  • Location: Aberdeen

A change from recent years in that summer brought the best weather with above average sunshine for the first time in a decade. This helped to make it the sunniest year since my records began in 2007, with 1574 hours - just ahead of 2009.

 

Despite the summer being sunny the greatest positive sunshine anomaly once again came during the cold months with a record sunny November managing 118 hours of sunshine - 160% of average.

 

It was also the first year since 2006 to record fewer than average rain days.

 

On the negative side it was another poor year for snowfall. Despite there being above an average total of 28 days snow lying the quality of snow events was poor due to a lack of northerlies. 1999 and 2006 which had only half the snow lying days were both vastly superior due to the top quality of the snow events.

 

Most of the city had a third successive year without a continuous week of lying snow for the first time since the 1990s (1996-98). Here on the outskirts we did manage 15 consecutive days in January but for most of the city the snow melted completely before the end of the first week due to a horrible easterly wind during which the temperature never dropped below freezing for 5 days.

 

March was the worst month of the year. Absolutely dire with woeful sunshine and a nasty cold easterly wind. The snowfall events were all appalling transitory events that had largely melted by lunchtime. Even a fall of 12cm lasted no more than a day. The worst thing about this diabolical month was the effect on spring growth with trees remaining bare into May and few daffodils having flowered by the end of April.

 

October and December also deserve mention for being utterly dreadful and rating amongst the worst on record especially December which was a complete write-off. It brought the mildest minima since 1934 and dismal unseasonable weather over the festive period for the third successive year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset
  • Weather Preferences: Continental winters & summers.
  • Location: Cleeve, North Somerset

As I was living in Madrid until mid-June I can only comment on what I have experienced since.

 

June 15th-30th 6/10

Like: some glorious sunny days

Dislike: often very cloudy and at times cool and windy

 

July 9.5/10

Like: best July since 2006, abundant sunshine and brilliant thunderstorms to finish

Dislike: major family event rained off on 27th

 

August 7.5/10

Like: dry and very usable for outdoor activities

Dislike: too cloudy and no notable temperatures after the 1st

 

September 6/10

Like: the summery first week

Dislike: the rest of the month was very boring and often wet

 

October 6/10

Like: late-summery start and impressive thunderstorms on 20th and 22nd

Dislike: stupidly mild right to the end of the month

 

November 7/10

Like: stormy start to the month and some frosty nights in the final third

Dislike: too many 'nothing' days

 

December 3/10

Like: hailstorms on the 22nd and 27th and very frosty on the 29th

Dislike: the rest of the month has been very unseasonal and nothing typical of winter

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...