The UK in October

 

Mike Hulme on last month’s weather

 

 

DAYTIME TEMPERATURES

October was a record-breaking month for temperatures in the UK, being the warmest October in the 340-year long Central England Temperature (CET) series.  The monthly anomaly in the CET was about 3C above normal.  The daytime temperature for the whole UK monitored in this column was nearly 2C above the long-term average, suggesting that nights were more unusually warm during October than were days.  Nevertheless, the whole of the UK enjoyed this mild weather, even Lerwick and Stornoway in the far north of Scotland recording temperatures more than 1C milder than normal.  And the only day in the month when temperatures fell below their seasonal norm was the very last of the month, the 31st.  Such a prolongation of mild weather into autumn contributes to the lengthening of the growing season in the UK, which has been almost four weeks longer during the last decade than it was 100 years ago.

 

 

RAINFALL

The mild southerly and westerly airflow also brought with it rain, and during October most parts of the country were wetter than average.  Only parts of the southern and eastern coastal regions failed to reach their monthly average rainfall, whilst Ross-on-Wye, Birmingham and Eskdalemuir recorded more than twice the normal.  There was some localised flooding during the month, the wettest days being the 1st, the 8th and the 20th.  The country as a whole recorded 47% more rainfall than usual during the month.

 

 

SUNSHINE

Scotland and Northern Ireland were cloudy during October, whilst England and Wales were sunnier than usual.  Overall, the UK average sunshine for the month was almost exactly average.  The coldest day of October – the 31st – also turned out to be the sunniest, with a nationwide average of 6.4 hours of sunshine, more than twice the average for the time of year.  Skegness and Scarborough on the east coast were two of the sunniest locations for the month, each averaging about 4.5 hours of sunshine.  In contrast, sunshine totals for most of Scotland only reached 70-90% of average.

 

 

Dr Mike Hulme is at UEA and is a Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

(more details at website at www.tyndall.ac.uk)

 

 

October 2001: Very mild, and rather wet

 

Daytime Temperature: 1.9C above average;          Rainfall:   47% above average;      Sunshine:  1% above average.

 

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

 

Mean monthly extremes:

 

Warmest          Guernsey                                        18.2C

Sunniest          Skegness                                        145 hours sun

Wettest          Eskdalemuir                          288mm 

Coldest          Lerwick                                             11.6C

Cloudiest          Eskdalemuir                          42 hours sun

Driest           Skegness                                        37mm