This year has been very different from the preceding one.
2000 saw periods of heavy snow, gale force winds and, most significantly, enough rain to make it the wettest in the last 250 years. This year has also been much ‘quieter’ - not as wet, not as windy, and with a much better summer. A fairly benign January gave way to above-average rainfall in February, March and April. But strong winds and snow were noticeable by their absence.  | | Richard Angwin enjoys the Bristol Balloon Fiesta |
Although the early months were relatively mild, it was still good to feel some warm sunshine on our backs in May with temperatures as high as 26 Celsius (79F) on the 12th.
The early and late May Bank Holidays were also dry, bright and reasonably warm.
This summer was undoubtedly better than the previous one.
But although we did enjoy some very fine days (with 30 Celsius (86F) being reached in late July) the weather was rather mixed.
Heavy thunderstorms on 4th July caused flooding problems around the Bristol area. Foot-and-mouth disease hit the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta hard but the weather certainly did not do us any favours.
Whilst weather conditions were good on the Friday, they deteriorated thereafter causing all weekend flying to be cancelled.  | | Storm clouds hover over the half marathon course |
Thankfully, the autumn flooding of last year was not repeated.
Although October was exceptionally wet, both September and November were relatively dry. For those who took part in the Bristol Half Marathon on 7th October it must have seemed as though most of the month’s rainfall fell in the space of a few hours, starting half an hour before the race began. The largely dry weather continued through much of December as high pressure remained stationary over the UK. Although December turned out to be quite a chilly month, it did not stop the year as a whole being one of the warmest on record, with mean temperatures almost one degree above average. The effects of global warming are many and varied but across the UK 2001 was one of the warmest on record and the Bristol area has mirrored this trend in its own weather records. | 
