(NECN: Matt Noyes) - 2013 in New England began with hardly any snow on the ground, in the midst of a winter that saw an appreciable snow drought, and temperatures in the 60s mid-January.
Other parts of the nation weren't so lucky. In late January, 56 tornadoes tore through the southeast and the Ohio Valley.
On February 8, it was New England's turn to experience the extreme.
The blizzard of 2013 spanned two days, delivering a widespread two to three feet of snow, whipping furious winds in excess of 80 mph.
It resulted in a traffic ban for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the first time since the notorious Blizzard of '78.
Ansonia, Conn. saw 36 inches of snow, setting a new all-time 24-hour snow record for the state.
Portland, Maine recorded the city's biggest snowstorm on record at 31.9 inches.
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The blizzard was just the first shot in what would be a snow blitz across the months of February and March in New England.
Spring across most parts of the country will be remembered as the month tornado season came to life. Large and deadly tornadoes spun across Texas and Oklahoma, killing 24 in Moore, Okla.
At the end of May, an EF5 tornado raked across the town of El Reno, Okla., estimated to be 2.6 miles wide, unofficially the widest tornado on record in the U.S.
The twister killed three storm chasers and 22 people in total. It even tossed a Weather Channel tornado hunt vehicle off the road.
Tornadoes would make the news in New England as well, especially one small and weak vortex captured on video May 10 as it swept across Washington Street in Stoughton, Mass.
June and July brought warmer, but much wetter than normal, weather to New England.
The fall was all about wind, at home and abroad.
A wind event blew a monthly record-setting 56 mile-per-hour gust through New Hampshire.
Overseas, Typhoon Haiyan roared into the Phillipines as the strongest tropical cyclone to hit land in history.
Of course, early season snow has been the theme, nationwide, as we round out 2013.
In New England, winter has started strong - an appropriate end to a busy year of weather.
