Ossett’s Hottest Year Ever?

Tuesday and Wednesday were cold and sunny much better than the dull drab weather we've become accustomed to. It was just bad planning on my part that Tuesday was spent decorating and Wednesday involved waiting in for the boiler repair man.

It was hard to avoid all the news items proclaiming 2014 as the hottest year ever in the UK with accompanying pictures of sandy beaches shimmering in the heat haze. As it’s December I've just added the average temperature for December up to the third of the month into my annual average temperature chart. 

At the moment with a December average of 5.6°C 2014 would equal 2011 with an annual average temperature of 11.0°C. I must be honest when I'm talking about a temperature of 11.0°C hot isn't the first description that comes to mind. So if it’s going to be the mildest year I've recorded it’s all down to whether or not December turns out to be another month with above average temperatures. It’s not unusual to have above average as by it’s very meaning some months will be above and some below the average monthly value.

Whatever the final yearly average temperature turns out to be the gardening year has been good. I can’t remember any prolonged dry spells where it was necessary to water the plot on a regular basis. Spring got us off to a good mild start following on from a winter period of almost no frosts. Both fruit and vegetables produced good crops with the odd failure being made up for with a bumper crop elsewhere. The only disappointing spell was a very poor August when some crops seemed to come to a bit of a standstill.

Of course these are my recording taken from my own weather station and represent the conditions in my garden and cannot be taken as a representative example of the UK as a whole. I do wonder though when that average UK temperature is announced exactly where in the UK this does represent.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett