Memories of 2013

[Sunny76]

I think it’s safe to say the 2010s are now well and truly in the rear view mirror, for us to look back at them. 
 

Almost 10 years ago now, but 2013 stands out as one of the better years, with the cold snowy years of the late 2000s continuing, but also coming to a close.

Warmer summers return after a string of cooler or poor ones since 2007.

January was quite snowy at times, and a notable covering in the month. Think it was mid month, but remember it feeling cold for quite a number of days.

February was chilly and dull.

March was very cold and frosty with biting winds.

April saw an improvement, but felt chilly despite some warmer days.

May was quite cold, and similar to 2012, with longer periods of cold and damp weather.

June was chilly to start with, and cold on and off to mid month. A switch to warmer weather did take place towards the end of the month.

July was hot and sunny, probably the warmest month since summer 2006, August was mainly sunny and hot at times. 
 

A perfect summer, but pegged back by the coolish start to June. 
 

September was cool and dull, which lead into a mild winter. The mild winters returned with a vengeance from this point on, unfortunately!

The warm September theory doesn’t hold water, in regards to mild winters. 

[Frost HoIIow]

An interesting 7 months of the year. Cold and snowy January, further cold and snow in the Feb & March. Rest of Spring was unusually chilly and the leaves on most trees not coming on fully until late May, they were about a month behind. Summer up here was a one trick pony with just July the stand out month. It was a good month though if heat is someone's thing. Hottest July since 2006. Don't really remember much about the weather later in the year. Mustn't have been all that interesting.

[hillbilly]

A great year.Snowfall in January had patches that lasted until May.Wintery spells persisted through February and rewarded with a bitter March giving a huge dumping of drifted snow not seen since 1995 and it was the second week of April before a real thaw arrived.Interestingly the extended winter had more air frosts than any winter since 1979,way more than 2010.I also noted that the fields were yellow in April which i hadnt seen since 1996,something that happens with a late spring .The summer gave us the best July since 2006 unfortunately August although warm once again delivered a lot of cloud.

[Derecho]

Ah January 2013, the cold spells the GFS wasn't on board with until 2 days out, was dragged in kicking and screaming... was a decent cold spell, quite snowy and could have morphed into a February 1947 type month if the Scandi block had held up more. The Monday of the cold week saw an occluded front cross east and the snow was very heavy in Hull. The following night it got down to -13C!, just as cold as December 2010. I saw thundersnow one evening later in the week as loads of showers came in off the North Sea.

February was rather cold but I don't remember much from it.

March was even colder and it's a shame we didn't get these synoptics earlier in the winter as it would have been severe. Cold easterlies developed early in the month after a mild start. However it was quite a dry easterly. We then went through an unsettled phase with marginal rain / snow events that I think Hull was on the wrong side of for a time. The final third of the month saw some very cold air return though with a notable snow event around the equinox, though it melted fairly quickly.

The very cold weather lasted into the start of April and I remember some of the model output was going to keep this going, potentially a cold snowy easterly which would have meant an exceptionally cold first half to April, the models backed off on it though.

May was cold and unsettled, I remember briefly seeing sleet one late May morning.

June was a decent month I remember but with average temperatures. July was superb, a lot of high pressure and I think the second half of the month became muggy and thundery at times.

August was a pretty standard month for these days, with a big plume breaking down at the start of the month. Some big thunderstorms as the cooler air came in.

September I moved to Norwich to do my masters degree. Weather was generally non-descript. A big wind storm in October I think. A chilly and dry November. December was very unsettled and windy. I think a northerly earlier on in the month caused some flooding near North Sea coasts.

Edited April 9, 2022 by Quicksilver1989

[SummerShower]

I remember January being pretty decent for snow.  An almost 2 week cold spell from 13th to 25th with 4 separate snow events, the centrepiece of course being the 18th.   February was cold but a bit disappointing for snow here.

March was a funny one down in the south.  Yes it was bitterly cold, but I am on the verge of calling it boring weather-wise as we did not get anything like the severe snowfalls of further north.  We did have 2 thunder days though (16th and 19th) which I suppose is notable for such a cold month.

April had some decent days after the very cold start, and the 1st May Bank Holiday weekend was decent.. not hot, but warm.  The rest of May was forgettable.  June was also quite forgettable, cloudy but quite dry and chilly.

July of course was one of the best.. at least equal to July 2018 because it had more thunder especially later on.  Only 2006 was better in my lifetime for heat and storm lovers.

August and September had their moments, but also some dross as well.  October was very wet and had the st jude storm on the 28th which was notable (despite only lasting a few hours).  November was quite seasonal, if rather cloudy.

December was a windstorm lovers dream from the 14th onwards (Eastern coastal areas also getting one on the 5th)  The 23rd/24th storm was amazing.  If storms were named back then, there were so many that they'd have gone into the Greek alphabet during that following winter I reckon.

[Sunny76]

I forgot about the storms in mid to late July. This year did see a return to summer storms, especially in the London region. 
 

 

[Weather Enthusiast91]

Winter - Cold at times with a good snowfall here and there. Quite a notable covering in January. Not a bad winter overall.

Spring - Took an age to get going. I don't remember much else about it.

Summer - A meh June but a great July. The good thing about that spell was that it didn't feel particularly oppresive like some hot spells do. August was around average from what I can remember.

Autumn - September was a typical transitional month with its fair share of settled and unsettled spells. October and November I don't remember much about.

December - A fairly nondescript first half, but the second half was great fun if you enjoy exciting weather.

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by Weather Enthusiast91

[Summer18]

Great year, snow and cold in the second week of January which lasted for at least 10 days. I remember February being cold throughout even if we didn’t have much snow.

March was exceptionally cold and I saw the heaviest snowfall I have ever seen on the weekend of the 23rd. Some of the drifts were twice the height of me. The cold weather lasted throughout April and May, One thing that sticks out from this period was how desolate the landscape was in the height of spring.

Things improved in June and July was a classic with heat and storms towards the end. August was one of the better ones of the last few years.

Autumn was quite seasonal, I remember a completely surprise thunderstorm on the 25th October which caused flights to divert at Leeds Bradford airport.

November and December were really stormy and seemed to usher in the milder period we have been living in since. 
 

A very interesting year weather wise, similar to 2018. 

[damianslaw]

A year of two halves. First half consistently cold despite the very mild start to Jan. Second half consistently warm of very mild, a switch exactly at the end of June. 

Mid Jan was very cold and we had 8 inches snow on the 26th haven't seen a greater fall of snow in a single event since. It did become mild at the tail end of the month.

February was mostly cold, mild to start though. Light snowfalls mid to late month. 

March exceptional stuff! Started on a slight mild note but quickly became very cold. The 11th was an ice day from memory. We missed out just on the heavy blizzard that swept SW Cumbria on the 23rd. End of the month exceptionally cold, snow stuck around in valleys. Unusual.

April just cold and grey from memory. Ditto May, wet at times. Coldest spring since 1996. Colder than 2010.

June disappointingly cool but quite fine and sunny. 

July - hooray! Best summer month since July 2006.. long time in waiting.

August warm but rather cloudy.

Remainder of year often very wet and very mild. October very miserable dank mild. Nov brought some frosty weather at times. December yuck very mild and very wet and stormy, nearly as bad as 2015!

Edited April 10, 2022 by damianslaw

[LetItSnow!]

From 2012 onwards my memories of the weather become much clearer. 

The winter I recall being often cool to cold. After the mild start to January we had quite a snowy spell here, yet oddly I remember more about February. February 2013 had a near absence of any mild weather whatsoever. My 12th birthday, 22 February 2013, was cold with snow grains throughout the day.

The spring sticks out very much so in my memory. Here in NW Kent we did well for snowfall in March 2013, it just got progressively worse as the month went on. I don't remember what day it was, I think maybe the 11th, when we had very deep cover. I remember very well being in the back of the car on a trip to take our cat to the vet on the 4th of April and it was a remarkably cold and windy day with heavy snow. I don't recall much settling but the intensity and the greyness stuck out in my mind, to this day I've never seen a more cold, harsh wintry day in April. It did clear up eventually though and I do remember some warm and sunny days in April, particularly I think around the middle part of the month. May 2013 I remember a little bit as just being very cold and wintry. Some day in May I feel like we had wintry showers and I remember looking out the window and the vegetation was falling very far behind. It really did feel like eternal winter. Saying that, we had at leasr one fine and warm day that month as I remember the 6th of May being quite nice, went to the garden centre. 

The summer was the first "hot" one I had experienced in living memory, you have to go back to 2006 to find a summer with longer sustained heat and I was only 5 then. June was cool and cloudy from memory, but I remember July very well. Mostly hot or very hot, dry and blazingly sunny until the 22nd. I went to a garden show on the 12th with my parents and it was blisteringly hot walking around the grounds. It was only about 31-32degC that day but in some of the tents the thermostats were touching 40degC. When I got back that evening, my weather station recorded a "high" of about 37-39degC that day - I didn't realise for a long while that it was set up incorrectly so it overcooked the highs by 5+ degrees!!! - but at the time I thought it was a record high. Big thunderstorms overnight July 22nd into the 23rd, they rumbled on all night though thunder was often quite far away - we just had lots of heavy rain. I remember going to a wedding on the 27th and it was a very hot and humid day, everyone was dressed up and it was quite miserable as a 12 year old! Later that evening at the pub there was an almighty deluge of rain when thunder moved in and I vividly remember a massive fork of lightning stretch across the sky. August wasn't as memorable overall, but it provided two very big thunderstorms on the 2nd and the 5th, the latter which brought extremely heavy rain. I don't recall much else from August.

The autumn I remember fairly well - September was mostly forgettable but I remember quite a notable windstorm around the 16th. October was very wet. The 11th had some kind of weather front stuck across Kent and I remember biblical amounts of rain that day with flooding on many local roads and lanes. Oddly, I don't remember much about the St. Jude windstorm. November had some frosty weather but I don't recall that much.

December I remember well, the tidal surge on the 5th which brought flooding to NE coasts was in a way a warning of what was to come. The true nature of that foul winter arrived on the 18th. The storm on the 24th knocked our power out on Christmas morning, luckily we had a gas oven.

[philglossop]

All I know is 2013 was personally the worst year of my life to date. My then civil partnership collapsed on Wed 13th March and I remember walking across Plymouth Hoe in bits  with it sleeting and snowing. The next few weeks were a blur, but I remember spring being ridiculously late with trees not coming into leaf until early May or even mid May. I just remember not having a car, walking everywhere and one day seeing the trees suddenly green! 

 

Summer was pretty good if not busy with divorce lawyers and I had a good holiday in West Cornwall first week of September walking the cliffs etc . After that the weather broke and I remember November and December being ridiculously wet here which led on to the stormy winter. 
 

Still, not a year I’d EVER wish to repeat - even if it led to a new life and greater happiness! 

[Summer18]

3 hours ago, philglossop said:

All I know is 2013 was personally the worst year of my life to date. My then civil partnership collapsed on Wed 13th March and I remember walking across Plymouth Hoe in bits  with it sleeting and snowing. The next few weeks were a blur, but I remember spring being ridiculously late with trees not coming into leaf until early May or even mid May. I just remember not having a car, walking everywhere and one day seeing the trees suddenly green! 

 

Summer was pretty good if not busy with divorce lawyers and I had a good holiday in West Cornwall first week of September walking the cliffs etc . After that the weather broke and I remember November and December being ridiculously wet here which led on to the stormy winter. 
 

Still, not a year I’d EVER wish to repeat - even if it led to a new life and greater happiness! 

It’s weird how personal situations can mask your memory of the weather. 2013 was a great year for me, getting my first proper job and car, I look back on that summer like it was one endless party. When in reality I know I am over hyping it.

2020 on the other hand was interesting from a weather side but a terrible year for me so I underplay just how nice that spring was weather wise. 

[SqueakheartLW]

A year of literally 2 halves this one was. A coldies dream for the first half and for those who want colder than average months.

Then a complete flip for the second half with generally all close to average or milder than average months except for November 2013.

Colder Half      CET         1991-2020      Anomaly                   Milder Half      CET         1991-2020      Anomaly

January             3.45C      4.66C              -1.21C                         July                   18.35C    16.79C            +1.56C

February          3.20C      4.89C              -1.69C                         August             16.89C    16.51C            +0.38C

March               2.71C      6.74C              -4.03C                        September      13.66C    14.17C            -0.51C

April                  7.46C      8.95C              -1.49C                        October            12.52C   10.92C            +1.60C

May                 10.40C    11.90C             -1.50C                        November        6.17C     7.41C               -1.24C

June                 13.59C    14.69C             -1.10C                        December        6.33C     4.97C               +1.36C

 

Overall 2013

2013 CET Mean: 9.61C          1991-2020 Annual CET Mean: 10.25C          2013 CET Anomaly: -0.64C

 

Overall a slightly colder than average year, mostly due to the first half of the year and especially that March 2013.

I expect the weather in the first half was dominated firstly by the effects of the SSW in the early part of January 2013 which contributed to the mid January 2013 to early April 2013 weather patterns before a recovered stratospheric polar vortex then broke down for the final warming later in the spring and this could have contributed to the chilly May and June.

The second part of the year was the major flip to milder than average conditions although we did squeeze out 2 more colder than average months, September 2013 to an extend but November 2013 was the coldest in terms of anomaly in the second half of the year.

 

Stand out moments for me

The main things that stand out for me are the cold episodes really from mid January 2013 right up to April 2013 and how long and how extreme that March cold seemed to go on for. Some of the days around the 20th to 25th March I remember had ridiculously low daytime maxes for the time of the year, 1 or 2C

The cold spring was another notable feature despite the breakdown of the northern blocking in April we never really got spring going properly and I remember some rather chilly days in May as well and I think some places got more snow that month too. June 2013 wasn't anything special and at this point it looked like 2013 was going to be a rather chilly year overall, that is until that July came.

July 2013 for me was more or less one long uninterrupted heatwave from start to finish with many days clear blue skies, little wind and just heat day and night. This set up the beginning of the milder half of the year and apart from some cold conditions in November 2013 when a couple of Arctic northerlies struck that was as cold as it got really.

December 2013 started cold and stormy but that was the last cold shot I can remember before that horror show storm fest winter struck.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

On 09/04/2022 at 20:43, Sunny76 said:

Almost 10 years ago now

Thank you for making me feel old. 

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by Weather Enthusiast91

[TheOgre]

2013 was a very interesting year for weather. March and July were the stand outs. In general very similar to 2018.

I remember the January being cold and snowy. Our school closed halfway through the day because of snow on Friday 18 January and it was closed on Monday 21 January. The February was cold with lighter snowfalls.

March was one of the most memorable. I went to Wales and there were huge icicles hanging from cliffs in mountains and the snow was like being abroad! A bitter month. April to June I remember as being cool but not that prominent.

July was fantastic. It was the first time I remember seeing such a hot summer and a parched landscape. At that age I was used to the rubbish summers of 2007-12 and a lengthy heatwave was something I’d never experienced (I barely remember 2006). Thursday 1 August was a scorcher, I remember playing at the park with my siblings and Nan in the heat.

After that, autumn 2013 ushered in a lengthy mild and wet period and we didn’t really get any more extreme weather on a similar level until 2018.

Edited April 27, 2022 by TheOgre

[Earthshine]

I was 13 at the time and vividly remember that sparkling but frigid March.  The rest of the spring wasn't particularly memorable but the July that year was absolutely fantastic, one of the best I've experienced here.  Days of hot sunshine.  I think August was relatively decent too before we ushered in an absolutely abysmal period with the worst winter I can remember!

[Norrance]

Remember a nice Summer and snowy spells in all the Winter months plus March and early April. First photo from January from Kenmore in Perthshire which ended up with around 45cms level snow. Second from March just North of Dundee where large drifts caused havoc on back roads  in the high winds although lower ground was relatively clear that time.

[danm]

 

 

[danm]

 

[jy]

Did Dec 2013 have record breaking rainfall

[Summer8906]

Very late to this one (!) but it's just come up.

A very interesting (if not always pleasant) first few months, a hot July which I missed much of (being out of the country), a pleasant August and a disturbed October.

January was notable for the widespread lying snow across southern England, one of only two such years since 1988, incredibly - the other being 2010. The first week or so was mild, dry and dull before it turned colder around the 10th, and then the real cold arrived around the 14th. Heavy snow fell on Friday 18th and led into a classic snow-covered weekend with classic winter scenes of the sort we rarely get in the drab UK winter climate.

Cold continued until the 25th but in south Hampshire a nuisance low moved far enough north on the 22nd to produce a thaw in the evening as warmer air temporarily moved in. Further north snow remained until the 25th when a major storm moved in and the rest  of the month was mild and wet.

February continued the disturbed theme initially, but temps quickly dropped to average with a NW-ly spell, then a cold but very wet weekend 9th-10th, sadly just not quite cold enough for snow. Then more cold before a brief mild and dry interlude mid month, before the first blast of dry cold easterlies to see out the month.

March started with dry cold easterlies and briefly became dry and mild around the end of the first week, before turning cyclonic and chilly with very wet weather for a time, with alternating cold E-lies and milder W-lies. For much of the final two weeks it was locked-in cold easterlies, at first wet but then very dry - albeit dull.

April turned sunnier but was uncommonly cold, maxima perhaps around 4C on the 2nd under sunny skies if I remember right and the ground rock hard. It really did seem unearthly weather for April, as if someone had forgotten it was spring. Dry and cold remained for the first week, then the second week was damp, dull and chilly, but not extremely so with W winds.

Spring finally arrived on the 14th (!) when it turned very much warmer with high-teens temps and the flowers all seemed to simultaneously come out, so you had March and April's spring flowers all out at the same time. It did make for a truly spectacular spring, albeit a short and very late one. Second half of April was largely dry and sunny with seasonable temps and the odd warmer, high-teens day.

May also started sunny with seasonable temps and spectacular spring flowering, but from around the 7th a cool and unsettled spell set in for a while. This continued for around 2 weeks with some poor days, but the mean wind direction was northerly so occasional sunny, coolish days intervened too. The weekend of the 18th/19th was dry allowing the spectacular if late spring to be enjoyed again, following a miserable 11th/12th weekend.

May ended sunny and increasingly warm, with the final day decidedly warm with 21C+ temps and a warm evening.

June continued with a warm sunny first week but was largely cloudy and nondescript, and sometimes dull and drizzly. The very end was warm and sunny once again.

July was rather unsettled for the first 4 days before the hot sunny spell began on the 5th. I only experienced the first week or so as I went on holiday around the 11th, returning by the 26th by which time the weather had broken, it was rather changeable with thundery rain albeit still somewhat on the warm side.

August was generally pleasant, temps a little above average, rainfall a little below, sunshine about average. Nonetheless, one of the three best Augusts since 2006, such has been the low standard of recent Augusts.

September had a warm sunny first week but then very suddenly became cool and showery on the 6th, a sudden transition more typical of spring. That weekend was cool and showery with N winds, then the rest of the month was cloudy and nondescript with occasional wet days and occasional sunny ones. It started cool but became fairly warm, but cloudy still, by the end of the month.

October was memorable, but not necessarily for the right reasons. It started with late September's warm and cloudy conditions (a southerly with fairly low pressure, the exact same synoptics were more or less repeated 6 months later in early April 2014) before warm and sunny briefly took over for the first weekend. Then a northerly plunge and a brief cold spell before a rare (for autumn) westerly-moving warm front produced rain from the east around the 11th. Under a slack system following this, Sat 12th was bright and fairly warm, before the full-on Atlantic onslaught arrived on  Sun 13th and was maintained for the rest of the month. Notable features included a very cyclonic Sun 20th with frequent heavy showers, after-dark thunderstorms on Tues 22nd, and of course the St Jude storm on Sunday 27th, one of the worst of recent times. At the very end of the month things got a little less unsettled and Halloween was mild and damp though only with light rain. One thing I distinctly remember about this October is how the models seemed to be all agreeing on a lengthy anticyclonic spell early in the month, only for one of the biggest about-turns I can remember to occur.

Very disturbed weather quickly resumed in early November with the first 9 days extremely wet, including a storm on the 2nd and frequent thundery showers on the 9th, before an abrupt change to cold and dry on Sunday 10th. The rest of the month remained dry and mostly cold with little or no rainfall.

December continued in the same vein though became milder with the high sinking south. Friday 13th (yes really) saw the disturbed weather arrive and with time the jetstream just moved further and further south, and it just got wetter and wetter...

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by Summer8906

[Don]

Shivering first half of the year, sweltering second!

[I remember Atlantic 252]

18th Jan, classic snowy day, front from SW meets cold air! same again 23-24 March

[trickydicky]

I don’t remember many specifics about 2013 beyond that where I lived at the time in central Lancashire it snowed every day for a long period, without ever necessarily amounting to anything or even settling at all. I went skiing in the February at Cairngorm and none of the higher lifts were open because they had been buried. 
 

The pictures below are from 26th January. I think it was quite a major snow storm in some parts of the North West, particularly around the Wigan area. But it didn’t really come off where I lived. It was quite an odd event in that it snowed and then turned to rain for a long time. The rain didn’t melt the snow though and it all ended up freezing again. It looks nice in the photos but was all very crispy. 

[North-Easterly Blast]

On 09/04/2022 at 19:43, Sunny76 said:

I think it’s safe to say the 2010s are now well and truly in the rear view mirror, for us to look back at them. 
 

Almost 10 years ago now, but 2013 stands out as one of the better years, with the cold snowy years of the late 2000s continuing, but also coming to a close.

Warmer summers return after a string of cooler or poor ones since 2007.

January was quite snowy at times, and a notable covering in the month. Think it was mid month, but remember it feeling cold for quite a number of days.

February was chilly and dull.

March was very cold and frosty with biting winds.

April saw an improvement, but felt chilly despite some warmer days.

May was quite cold, and similar to 2012, with longer periods of cold and damp weather.

June was chilly to start with, and cold on and off to mid month. A switch to warmer weather did take place towards the end of the month.

July was hot and sunny, probably the warmest month since summer 2006, August was mainly sunny and hot at times. 
 

A perfect summer, but pegged back by the coolish start to June. 
 

September was cool and dull, which lead into a mild winter. The mild winters returned with a vengeance from this point on, unfortunately!

The warm September theory doesn’t hold water, in regards to mild winters. 

What I actually mean to say is that the link between September's weather and the following winter is clear that it appears to work one way with only warm Septembers, in that it is very rare if not unheard of to get a cold winter after a warm September, whereas after a cool or average September it is not clear that it has any bearing on the following winter either way.  I think that you can write the coming winter off from a cold perspective after a warm September, but when Septembers are cool or average I do not think that there is a guarantee either way.