Epping’s weather records now cover 39 years, from 1979 to 2013 and again from 2020 to date. So what can we deduce from the weather records in 2023?

The global warming trend was once again evident in Epping’s weather. Overall, it was our second warmest year, with an annual mean temperature of 11.6°C compared with the long term average of 10.3°C. The last four years have all had above average mean temperatures.

We had record high mean temperatures for June, September and December, and only April and August were fractionally cooler than the long term averages.

The highest temperature of the year was 34.2°C (average 30.6°C), set on the unusually late date of 9th September, and this was not only our hottest September day but the fourth hottest of any month in our records. The lowest temperature of the year was -4.9°C on 17th January (average -5.7°C). We experienced our sixth earliest ‘last frost’ on 15th March. There was just one ‘ice day’ (temperature never rising above zero), but no ‘tropical nights’ (temperature never falling below 20°C).

With 804.8mm of rain overall, it was our fifth wettest year on record, despite having had our driest ever February. Eight months had above average amounts of rain, and there were only two prolonged dry spells , in February and the longest in May to June with 28 consecutive dry days. The wettest day was 4th July with 30.0mm, or about 1.2 inches.

We’ve not got so much history of barometer and wind, but the low pressure with the passage of Storm Ciarán on 2nd November at 954.7 hPa was comfortably the lowest in our records. The maximum wind speed recorded was 33mph (Force 7) on both 27th and 28th December, as Storm Gerrit passed us by. We have 15 years of comparable records, and that equalled the lowest annual maximum wind speed we have logged (the other year was 2021). We’ve already beaten that this January!