The UK in November

 

Mike Hulme on last month’s weather

 

 

DAYTIME TEMPERATURES

The warm October weather continued into the first few days of November, although by the 8th daytime temperatures had dropped by 7C or more to record the coldest day of the month.  Thereafter, short mild spells were interspersed with two or three days of colder weather.  Overall, the month ended up slightly milder than an average November, the only exceptions being a few east coast locations and the northern islands of Scotland which were colder than usual.  Unusually, the warmest day of the month occurred on the 30th, with a nationwide daytime average temperature of 13.3C – more than 4 degrees C above the seasonal norm.  The year 2001 in the UK is likely to end up a few tenths of a degree C warmer than the long-term average.

 

 

RAINFALL

There was quite a lot of dry weather during November, although the last week of the month was very wet.  Only Scarborough, Tiree and Lerwick of the 20 locations monitored here were wetter than an average November, and even these locations were wet by only by a few percent.  On the other hand, large areas of England and Wales recorded 50 per cent or less rainfall during November; Exmouth for example recording only 24mm which is only 28 per cent of average.

 

 

SUNSHINE

Sunshine totals for the month were very close to normal when averaged over the UK, but this hid differences between the south (sunny) and the north (cloudy) of the country and between the first half of the month (sunny) and latter half (cloudy).  The south of England was not only mild and dry, but was also sunny resulting in a rather pleasant month.  Guernsey, Bournemouth and Folkestone all enjoyed 50 per cent more sunshine than normal, averaging nearly 4 hours of bright sunshine per day.  Northern England and Wales, Northern Ireland and much of Scotland was rather cloudy, the western and northern isles – for example Tiree and Lerwick - especially so.  Nearly half of the month’s sunshine occurred during the first nine days of November – thereafter the only day with widespread sunshine was the 26th.

 

 

Dr Mike Hulme is at UEA and is a Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research (more details at www.tyndall.ac.uk)

 

 

November 2001: Rather mild and dry; sunny in the south

 

Daytime Temperature: 0.6C above average;          Rainfall:   31% below average;      Sunshine:  1% below average

 

[all average figures are based on the 1951-80 average]

 

Mean monthly extremes:

 

Warmest          Guernsey                                        13.0C

Sunniest          Folkestone                                      119 hours sun

Wettest          Lerwick                                   148mm 

Coldest          Lerwick                                             6.9C

Cloudiest          Tiree                                       20 hours sun   

Driest           Exmouth                                          24mm