A look back at October’s weather
As the first week of November draws to a close, the Met Office has been doing its sums and working out how October shaped up in comparison to what would normally be expected.
Autumn, like spring, is a transitional season, where we progress from summer to winter. This means that a huge range of weather can be experienced during the month of October as warm and cold air battle it out for supremacy.
October this year has been typically autumnal for most of the time, with showers, rain and occasional sunshine being the common theme.
What has been noticeably lacking this year is any late season warmth in the form of an Indian summer. The highest temperature in the UK in the whole of October was 18.8C at Holbeach, Lincolnshire on the first day of the month.
If you cast your mind back to October last year, much of the UK had a heat wave, with temperatures across England and Wales widely in the low to mid 20s Celsius. In fact, Gravesend in Kent reached a hot 29.9C.
This shows just how much the weather can vary from year to year, with big fluctuations in all weather elements possible.
October 2012 – temperature
The average temperature for the whole of the UK was 1.3C below normal, making it the coldest October since 2003. As I mentioned already, the highest temperature for the whole month was 18.8C, with the lowest being -7.8C at Braemar, Aberdeenshire.
Northern and eastern parts of Scotland experienced temperatures that were actually as much as 2.5C below normal, giving northern Scotland its fifth coldest October on record.
October 2012 – rainfall
When taking the whole of the UK into consideration, rainfall was close to normal, although there were marked variations across England.
Southern and eastern parts of England were actually much wetter than usual, with 150 per cent of average rainfall. In contrast, parts of the Midlands only had 70 per cent of the amount of rain that would be seen in a typical October.
The wettest day was recorded at Crombie Country Park, Angus, where 70.4mm of rain fell in the 24 hours ending at 9am on the 13th.
As well as rain, the first notable snowfall of the season happened across north eastern parts of the UK, with 12cm lying on the ground at Copley, County Durham on the 27th.
October 2012 – sunshine
Whilst sunshine across the whole of the UK was close to normal, there was some regional variation.
Much of Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England saw sunshine 10 to 30 per cent above normal, with south east England 10 to 30 per cent below.
What will the rest of November bring?
Having had a look at the weather charts for the next few weeks, the main theme looks to be an unsettled one.
Low pressure will be the dominant feature, bringing showers or longer spells of rain at times, with brisk winds.
However, occasional ridges of high pressure will bring some sunshine and drier interludes, with the threat of overnight fog and frost.