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