Year 2014

A dazzling start to 2014 with sunshine out of over Lyme Bay shining down on the historic beach at Beer, Devon on New Year's Day.

This year was the warmest in my record that started in 2005 and had an annual mean temperature of 12.1°C, that is 1.2°C above my estimated long term average. To put that into context, my coldest year was 2010 and that had an annual mean temperature of just 10.0°C.

The year started mild, windy and very wet with January being one of the wettest months I have ever recorded with 195 mm of rain. This remarkable stormy spell of weather that started in December 2013 continued through February culminating in a very windy and wet spell around the middle of the month. As with January, February was mild and very wet. The wild weather lasted right up until the end of February then with a change of month came a sudden, big change in the weather as spring arrived bringing calmer, sunnier and drier conditions.

A sunny and warm March led into a sunny and warm April dominated by benign, pleasant days. This warmth continued into May and then things got even better with a very sunny and dry June.

The icing on the cake was July. A beautifully warm, dry and sunny month making those wet and cool Julys of just a few years ago, a distant memory. This July also brought a return to my childhood memories of summer with endless humid, sunny afternoons and the excitement of a thunderstorm to end the day. And how the summer was warming the sea in Lyme Bay with off-shore temperatures reaching 21°C and even warmer along along the coast itself. A BBQ summer it was most definitely turning out to be.

It was such a shame that this would not last as into August it cooled down a little and became wetter and less sunny, though the month was not a right-off by any means. But summer was about to redeem itself with one of the finest, sunniest and warmest Septembers I have ever known with the summer warmth persisting right up until the very end of the month. Rain fell on only one day out the entire month and that was from a thunderstorm during a very warm, tropical-like night on the 19th.

October was another warm and sunny month with summer-like warmth lasting until the 20th though it was much wetter than our parched September. Autumn proper arrived finally in November with wet and windy weather but the temperature stubbornly stayed on the warm side and did not drop down to anything near average until the 17th of the month. Things cooled down significantly in December to around average temperatures and there was a even a rare cold and frosty end between Xmas and the New Year. Unusually for December being one of our wetter months, it actually ended up being a relatively dry month with only 37 mm of rain

All-in-all, 2014 was a year that started wild, wet and windy but very mild and then arrived a warm and sunny spring and summer that lasted right through until the latter part of October before autumn finally managed to arrive and change what was a very long trend of above average temperatures. Not only was it a warm year, it was also generally a sunny year but overall much wetter than normal.

What will 2015 have in store for us weather-wise? Well, the trend to ever-warmer winters seems to have resumed after a run of colder winters culminating in the severe December of 2010 when Devon resembled a foreign, snow-laden land. I suspect that a mild winter will lead into an early spring and then a warm start to summer. But there has been an increasing tendency for the summer weather to deteriorate during July only to recover during September. Will 2015 go the same way, I do know know! I suspect 2015 will be another warmer than average year overall though I doubt it will be as warm as this year. An emerging El Niño may help though.

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