The year got off to an unusually icy start for 1233 ABC Newcastle in January, with two members of our team reporting from the Antarctic for our Summer on the Ice project.
Station manager Phil Ashley-Brown and operations manager Geoff Overmyer had the rare opportunity to travel to Casey Station as part of the Australian Antarctic Division media program, which takes only a small number of journalists each year.
The pair spent three weeks on their trip, bringing the sights and sounds of life on an Antarctic base to ABC Local Radio listeners as well as our online audience.
In February we got back to a more conventional Aussie summer activity, when some of the world's best surfers converged on Newcastle for Surfest.
But the weather didn't play along, and conditions were so wild at Merewether Beach with 3m storm surf that organisers had to temporarily relocate the event to a semi-protected location inside Newcastle Harbour.
Reigning world champion Joel Parkinson took out the men's event, with Dimity Stoyle winning the women's contest.
The wet and wild conditions continued into March, when the rain arrived right on cue to wash out the Newcastle Show.
It's become a local joke and a tradition going back to 1955, when the historic Maitland flood occurred during the Newcastle Show.
This year was no different and heavy falls caused the cancellation of some events.
More torrential rain soon afterwards caused flooding in parts of the lower Hunter, isolating the township of Hinton when river levels rose.
Children got to stay home from school and SES volunteers delivered hay to stranded livestock, but for locals used to regular flooding it was little more than a nuisance.
In April, a number of Newcastle athletes including wheelchair racer Kurt Fearnley witnessed international terrorism at first hand.
They were in Boston to compete in the city's marathon when the race was bombed, with three people killed and more than 100 injured in the two almost simultaneous explosions at the finish line.
In May Newcastle was at the centre of one of the biggest scandals to rock the Australian racing industry.
Retired jockey and now Newcastle councillor Allan Robinson, as well as Knights' legend Andrew Johns, were in the midst of a feud between the Waterhouse family and racehorse owner John Singleton.
The dispute, over treatment given to the mare More Joyous, ended with Singleton sacking Gai Waterhouse as his trainer and both having to appear before a stewards' inquiry.
On a lighter note, 1233 sent our listeners back to the 1980s when we held our Back to Blue Light event at Maitland Bowling Club.
A packed house danced to the hits of the decade that taste forgot, dressed to the nines in the best (and worst) of 80s fashion.
The second running of the 1233 Portrait Prize had the station inundated with entries, with the winner unveiled in June at an exhibition and live broadcast at Lake Macquarie Art Gallery.
The prize was won by Shane Blue with his moody shot of local artist Brett McMahon.
Also in June, the State Budget revealed that the Port of Newcastle would be sold off to fund, among other things, light rail for the CBD.
It was described as the first time in living memory Newcastle was "at the heart of the State Budget".
Meanwhile, after all the controversy about the removal of the Laman St fig trees, work continued on revamping the street with a new batch of figs.
ABC Newcastle again ran our 1233 Challenge Cup in 2013, this time focusing on rugby league and giving junor teams the chance to have one of their games called by a professional commentary team and broadcast live on the radio.
The ultimate winners this year, at the game held in July, were the under-13 East Maitland Griffins.
In August, the ABC uncovered some previously well-hidden talent with our Exhumed competition.
It was a band contest for those who played for the fun of it, not has-beens or wannabes but those who never were.
The local winners were heavy rockers Motherlode, who along with other finalists played a live concert at Hexham Bowling Club.
Meanwhile, the Hunter was in full election mode as the Federal Election campaign rolled on.
A last-minute leadership change saw Julia Gillard shunted aside for a Kevin Rudd return, but it wasn't enough to avert a big defeat for Labor on polling day in September.
The ALP saw some of its big margins eroded in the Hunter, but managed to hang on to all the local seats with the exception of Paterson.
On the footy field, fans' hopes were raised when the Newcastle Knights under Wayne Bennett managed to make it into their first preliminary final in 12 years.
But their late run came to a stop against a strong Roosters side, which went on to take out the NRL Premiership.
The end of the team's season was made even more painful when captain Danny Buderus, playing his last game, was knocked unconscious.
As October blew in with hot westerly winds and a long dry spell continued, concerns for a bad bushfire season proved all too accurate sooner than anyone expected.
On the weekend of October 12-13, several big bushfires broke out in Port Stephens with several properties lost at Salt Ash and flames coming dangerously close to homes at Fingal Bay.
But worse was to come.
The following week, while locals were still assessing damage and arguments were raging about a lack of back-burning, the weather again produced ideal fire conditions.
Fires again flared up in Port Stephens, this time around Heatherbrae and coming so close to Newcastle Airport it had to be closed.
Big blazes were also out of control in rugged parts of the Upper Hunter, and a fire that had started at Doyalson North began racing towards communities on the southern end of Lake Macquarie.
There were hurried evacuations and the Pacific Highway was closed, but Catherine Hill Bay was hit hard with the loss of a number of buildings including historic properties such as Wallarah House.
Still reeling from the worst bushfires the region had ever experienced, the following week again brought outbreaks in the Stockrington area near the M1 motorway, and at Gateshead which soon posed a threat to the beachside suburbs of Redhead and Dudley.
There were more evacuations and traffic chaos until exhausted fire crews brought the fires under control, this time with no property loss.
Residents throughout the region were grateful to the firefighters who battled huge blazes in atrocious conditions, but saddened that some of the fires were apparently deliberately lit by children and teenagers.
There was better news for the city when an enormous and valuable sculpture by Brett Whitely was donated to Newcastle Art Gallery by his widow, Wendy.
Black Totem II is a giant egg in a nest and has taken pride of place outside the gallery, which has had a difficult year with funding for a planned expansion falling through and changes to the role of the gallery's director.
The migrating whales making their way down the coast weren't bothered by the topsy-turvy weather, and put on a show off the coast of Newcastle and Port Stephens.
Temperatures dropped as the Hunter celebrated Melbourne Cup Day and by the middle of November the region was copping a drenching with storms, flash-flooding and the heaviest rain we'd seen in months.
While the big wet caused some inconvenience to city commuters, farmers further up the valley were ecstatic that the undeclared but very real drought had finally broken.
As we head into December and the summer holiday season most of us will be hoping for some thoroughly unremarkable, boring weather rather than the extremes we experienced during 2013.
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