A month-by-month look at the area's weather in 2014

By Rich Wirdzek

Looking back at the weather for 2014, the extreme cold and snow to start the year would be some of the most memorable events.

The most brutal stretch of cold occurred Jan. 6-7 when Dayton International Airport saw 28 hours straight with sub-zero temperatures. Jan. 27-28 also was a period of extreme cold. Also, a lot of snow fell: 21.3 inches for the month.

February wasn’t much better. We spent much of the month with a continuation of extreme cold and lots of snow, then ended the month with a severe weather outbreak that produced an EF-0 tornado Feb. 20 in Phillipsburg, just northwest of Dayton.

We stayed pretty cold into March, recording more snow, even past the beginning of Spring.

April was warmer, as one would expect. But, we still had snow fall as late as April 15. This last snow put the final snowfall total at 53.6 inches for the 2013-2014 season – the third snowiest season on record for the area. By the end of the month, we were into our typical severe weather season, with an outbreak of damaging winds on the April 29.

May saw a few more days of extreme weather. On May 11, hail and high winds impacted the northern half of the area. On May 14, an EF-3 tornado struck parts of Cedarville in Greene County. On May 21, slow-moving thunderstorms created massive flash flooding in parts of Miami, Montgomery and Greene counties.

June would prove to be a much quieter month, however one more EF-0 tornado did touch down near Cable on June 27.

July was known to many as the month “without the summer.” We had many days with below-normal temperatures. This cool trend continued into much of August.

September and October were relatively quiet. November flashed an early preview of winter when several inches of snow fell on Oct. 17 along with an early blast of arctic air.

December proved to be more of a cloudy month, where sunny days were few and far between.