September 2013 started with five days that acted as a postcript to ‘summer’.  The maximum temperature on the 5th reached 27.3C. This figure was exactly the same as August’s high, which had occurred a little over a week earlier, and was the highest reading I had recorded in September since 2005. Then the dreaded Northwest wind returned, which almost always brings us showery days and cold clear nights, with the result that  an untimely minimum temperature of 2.3C came two nights later, on the morning of the 7th. Two further minima
below 5C around midmonth conspired to have the effect of checking the
growth of the runner beans, so whilst we are still picking the beans at
present, no further flowers were set.
After the first five days, conditions tended to be unsettled, with rainfall recorded for seventeen days. No more than two consecutive days without rain were noted. The total rainfall for the month was below average for the fourth month in a row at just 45.2mm. Two thirds of this total fell mid month and between the 25th and 27th. The overall total was very slightly higher than 2011. An interesting coincidence is that since 2005 at any rate, Septembers in odd numbered years have all been much drier than the even numbered ones. Average figures for odd years = 41.5mm; for even years, the figure is double
that, 83.5mm!
Temperatures averaged out at 14.5C. This put September 2013 midway between last year’s cool month and the  warm 2011. Daytime highs were not far short of those for 2011, but the nights averaged much cooler, despite including a high minimum of 15C on the 13th and the mild nights which coincided with the damp airstream covering us for the final days of the month.
Peter at Pottlelake