Year 2013

A bumblebee feeding on winter savoury at the end of a beautiful summer dominated by sunshine and warmth.

A Weather Diary of 2013

For weather interest, you would have thought that 2013 could not surpass 2012. But how wrong I was.

The year started generally rather normal and I was looking forward to a nice, early spring. Nature had already geared itself up with a run of early mild, sunny spring days from the 13th to the 19th of February with the first bumblebees buzzing around. Then there was a dramatic change as winds swung round to the north and east, the sunshine levels as well as the temperature dropped like a stone. The 'beast from the east' had arrived and it was a shock, especially as it was the first really cold weather of the year and arriving as late as it did.

From the 20th of February to the 5th of March the day temperatures did not get out of single figures and there were many air frosts by night. The increasing power of the spring sunshine helped to push day temperatures above 10°C up until the 19th - then it got worse! On the 24th of March I recorded a maximum of just 3.5°C and no sunshine making for an unusually, perhaps record-breaking so, cold late March day.

The cold weather just went on and on. By the end of March spring had been turned around into winter. The first half of April was no better though the strong April sunshine did help to get the day temperatures above 10°C but that persistent, bitter, desiccating north-easterly wind kept blowing turning the normally lush, green and verdant Devonshire landscape brown and dust-dry.

Finally, from the 15th of April the temperature started to climb and spring returned though there was still the odd cold day thrown in. Soil temperatures were well down and so was the growing season - would it ever recover!

With everything being now so cold, late spring didn't feel warm and the temperature had yet to surpass 21°C. It took right until the 30th of May for the real warmth to arrive. And yes it certainly did arrive with the start of summer. June was a glorious month with plenty of warm, sunny days. It was getting us prepared for a stunning July.

The cold spring became just a distant memory during June and then July brought the first prolonged hot and sunny weather since June 2010. From the 4th to the 26th the sun beat down relentlessly through cloudless skies with the monthly total sunshine reaching 328 hours. The weather became a little less settled but the warmth continued right through until September. The best summer since 2005 and how the garden loved it. Huge crops of tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies, grapes, apples and figs I've had in years.

Summer continued right into September with plenty of warm and sunny days right up to the 25th when the autumn arrived with the first cloud and cool days of the season. Saying that though, summer's last gasps still hung on with occasionally warm and sunny days in October with 21°C on the 17th.

Then things did get rather wet with the first deluges of the autumn. Not surprising given that the sea temperatures had recovered during the long summer and had become warm after the cold spring. The wet weather didn't last and high pressure began to build during mid-November to bring a very long spell of calm, settled weather though as usual at this time of year, the days were frequently quite cloudy.

This anticyclonic weather remained until mid-December and broke with the return of the westerlies. The Atlantic had finally awoken and with it a remarkable sequence of large, deep low pressure system relentlessly followed one after the other through until the end of the year.

I have no idea what 2014 will bring though it has started as 2013 left off with the Atlantic dominating in its inspiring, soggy (but at least it's mild) way.

 The Year 2013 Did you knows.....

• The average daytime temperature for July was 25°C, that was 4.0°C above the 1981 to 2010 average.

• From the 5th to the 26th July there was 310 hours of bright sunshine, that is an average of over 14 hours a day.

• With a mean temperature of just 5.2°C, March was only 0.1°C warmer than February's mean temperature of 5.1°C. And January was warmer than both months with a mean temperature of 6.2°C.

• The summer months of June, July & August produced 777 hours of bright sunshine which is an average of 8.5 hours a day. This made it the sunniest summer since 2006.