In a year that saw the seasons finally returning to Wales with a cold winter and a scorching summer we take a look back at BBC Cymru Wales highlights from 2013.
Weather wise, January began fairly mild but by mid-January it was all change as an icy easterly wind blew in from Russia bringing snow and plummeting temperatures.
January marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of David Lloyd George.
In contrast, The Six Nations in February began with an unseasonably mild start. After a disastrous start, Wales found their winning form to deliver one of their greatest ever performances, thrashing England 30-3 to win the championship.
Meanwhile Swansea City claimed their first major knockout trophy, beating Bradford to win the League Cup at Wembley. Thousands of Swans fans turned out to watch the victory parade through the streets of Swansea.
The Brecon Beacons National Park was granted special protection, becoming Wales’ first international dark sky reserve, one of only five in the world.
Night time fun in the Brecon Beacons by Dan Santillo
March saw the return of winter with further snow storms and weather disruption with unseasonably cold temperatures making it the coldest March in Wales since 1962.
We marked St David’s Day by looking back at highlights from 2013. These included a new daffodil named after One Show presenter Alex Jones and Llangennith Beach on Gower being named the third best beach in Europe by Trip Advisor.
Rhossili Bay by Paula J. Jones in the BBC Wales Nature Flickr group
Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler represented the UK at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest but only managed a 19th placing with 23 points.
The BBC Wales social media team descended on the renowned Welsh author Philip Pullman for #AskPullman. The Twitter chat saw fans from around the world engaging with the author live from his home in Oxford.
April is a month that Bluebirds fans will always remember as Cardiff City secured promotion to the Premier League with a draw at home to Charlton Athletic ending a 51-year absence from the league.
Radio Wales launched their Music Day with live music and performances from Welsh artists including Manic Street Preachers, Charlotte Church, Paper Aeroplanes and Sophie Evans.
In June, the world was introduced to Nev Wilshire and the hit TV series, The Call Centre, an observational documentary by BBC Cymru Wales for BBC Three.
Nev from The Call Centre
This amusing blog by a member of the TV crew gives provides a unique insight into Nev’s world!
Culture came to Cardiff in the shape of BBC Cardiff Singer of the Year, widely regarded as the world's greatest singing competition. This year the winnner was mezzo-sopranoJamie Barton from the USA.
July saw the return of the summer – an event not witnessed by some of us since the 1980s and for once, weatherman Derek Brockway could repeatedly mention the words – warm, sunshine and hot spell in the same sentence.
Summer sunset by Gill Jones
We all expected it to last days but the hot spell continued well into August.
The hot summer was great for Welsh tourism too as consumers opted to holiday at home and made the most of the warm weather.
Sales were booming on the hottest day of the year at 30°C with a 300% increase in the sales of outdoor gear.
On 13 August a strange phenomenon occurred off the Pembrokeshire coast. Adrian Owens photographed a superior mirage off Grassholm Island, which generated plenty of interest in our weather blog with over 7,000 views.
South Bishop island. Photo: Adrian Owens
This year the National Eisteddfod visited Denbighshire.
September saw the return of more unsettled weather but also the Red Bull World Cliff Diving Series. The Blue Lagoon at Abereiddy hosted a spectacular two day event featuring the world’s best cliff divers who launched off a 90ft diving platform.
October was a busy month, with Doctor Who celebrating 50 years and the WOMEX world music expo arriving in Cardiff.
WOMEX, the largest cultural event ever hosted by Wales kicked off in the Millennium Centre with ‘Land of Song’ a concert showcasing Welsh music, orchestrated by Cerys Matthews.
Les Tambours de Brazza performing at Womex 2013. Image: Yannis Psathas
Over the next five days musicians from around the world played to audiences on various stages in and around Cardiff Bay.
The beginning of November saw the arrival of the St Jude's Day storm - something of an anti-climax here in Wales, bypassing us and heading up the English side of the Bristol Channel instead.
The following weekend however saw an even bigger storm surge hitting coastal towns such as Aberystwyth.
3 November provided a historic Welsh Derby as two Welsh football teams met in the Premiership for the first time. In this particular clash Cardiff made the most of their home advantage, beating the Swans 1-0.
15 November saw the people of Wales once again dig deep into their pockets to raise £1,475,099 for Children In Need. This year’s total fundraising effort broke all previous records, raising a whopping £31,124,896.
On 23 November, The Day of the Doctor saw over 10 million people tuning in to watch a special episode marking the programme's fiftieth anniversary.
The BBC Cymru Wales programme was broadcast in 94 countries at the same time as it aired on BBC One - earning it a Guinness World Record as ‘the world’s largest ever simulcast of a TV drama’.
While all this was happening BBC Cymru Wales also launched its Live Longer Wales season – aimed at getting the nation in better shape through exercise and diet.
Tara Hammett and volunteers from the DVLA for the Live Longer Wales season
Who can forget Tara Hammet’s delicious chocolate sprout recipe as the fitness guru took on six staff from the DVLA in, Is My Job Killing Me?
Closer to home, BBC Wales Today presenter and journalist Jamie Owen bravely bared all in an effort to get in shape for the series Fat and Forty-Something.
November also saw the start of Wales in the Sixties, a four-part series looking back at the key movers and shakers of the time as well as the music and events that shaped young people’s lives in Wales.
Audience watching Manfred Mann at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, 24 September 1964
We sifted through the BBC picture archives to deliver a unique look at BBC Cymru Wales in the 1960s and had some lovely blogs from people who were in the thick of it, such as folk singer and broadcaster, Mari Stevens.
Christmas was approaching but there were a few things to get out of the way first such as Wales Sports Personality of the Year.
Leigh Halfpenny was the bookies favourite and didn’t disappoint as the Six Nations player of the tournament and British Lions star lifted yet another trophy.
This year we unveiled a wealth of BBC Christmas archive from around Wales and featured blogs from people involved in the Christmas industry such as a local reindeer herd owner and the world famous Pantomime Dame, Wyn Calvin.
Robert Morgan and his reindeer
It seemed like only yesterday but Christmas was upon us again but another one without snow unless you lived on a mountain top. The weather was atrocious with storms, floods and widespread disruption to thousands of homes over the festive period.
On 27 December there were 82 flood warnings and 182 flood alerts for England and Wales and the bad weather looks set to continue into 2014.
That’s it for 2013. We hope you’ve enjoyed some of our highlights. You can keep in touch with us in 2014 via Twitter @BBCWales or visit our BBC Cymru Wales Facebook page.
