A review of Aylesbury's weather in 2023

With the Christmas and New Year festivities behind us, it is time to review the 2023 year of weather across the Aylesbury Vale. The average temperature, inclusive of daytime maxima and night-time minima, was around 15.5C, about 1.5 degrees higher than the 30-year average. It was also a very wet year overall, with over 1000mm of rain recorded, about 25 per cent more than normal.

You may remember that there was some very cold weather during January and February. The lowest temperature of the year in Aylesbury was on 23 January, where temperatures fell to-8C. Despite the cold, there was very little snowfall, with most of the winter’s snow-cover back in December 2022. February was also very dry with almost no rain recorded.

The spring was varied and March made up for the lack of rain in February, with well over 100mm recorded. April also saw above-average rainfall. There were further night-time frosts in both March and April, whilst we reached 20C for the first time at the end of May, unusually late for recent times.

We didn’t see a repeat of the record-breaking heat of summer 2022, but summer 2023 was still very warm. The highest temperature of the summer, 31C, was recorded on 11 June. In terms of rainfall, we saw some impressive thunderstorms at times, but July was the most notable month, picking up over 100mm of rain, double the 30 year average.

Remarkably, the highest temperature of the year was recorded in September, when we reached 32C on the 9th . This was followed by some heavy downpours, with nearby Wendover seeing 50mm of rain in one day on the 20th.

The rest of the year was then characterised by wet and windy conditions. Each month saw around 100mm of rain and so, unsurprisingly, saturated ground and flooding was notable across the Vale. We did see some frost in late November and December, however.

The UK is also set for the first storm of 2024 with the Met Office issuing an amber warning with high winds anticipate. The South West of England and South Wales are expected to be the areas most at risk during Storm Henk.