Hot summer, warm autumn – 2009 weather in Vieussan

The weather is mostly pretty good in Vieussan, at least from a northern European perspective.  In summer we have dramatic thunderstorms, and in winter torrential downpours, violent winds and even severe frosts. Snow falls only occasionally and hardly ever settles; when it did for 24 hours on 26 December 2008, this was reputedly the first time in 20 years. But mostly it’s pretty sunny and dry, even in January. We do, however, still have weather, which means that it can be quite unpredictable, and we have good days, weeks, months and years, and not-so-good ones. Taken all round, 2009 has been an excellent year. It became warm enough to swim in early March (in a pool of course – the river wasn’t warm enough until the beginning of May), and as of early December there really hasn’t been any cold weather since. April was probably the only under-par month, with rather a lot of rain, in contrast to last year when it was lovely. From May onwards it was almost always gloriously warm, and the summer was the hottest for four years, with temperatures peaking at 40 degrees in August. The autumn has been sublimely warm – temperatures were still touching 20 in late November, when the leaves on the trees and vines were a glorious mixture of colours. They are dipping only slowly … but winter will come sooner or later. MS