The UK in October

 

Mike Hulme on last month’s weather

 

 

DAYTIME TEMPERATURES

 

Although the first few days of the month started mild, October as a whole was a rather cool month, more so over England, Wales and Northern Ireland than over Scotland.  Lerwick in the far north, for example, was 0.8C above the monthly norm, whereas Belfast was 0.8C colder than usual.  Birmingham and Aberdeen had very similar temperatures during October.  The coldest days occurred at the end of the month with the 30th being the coldest.  The year as a whole remains well above the average UK temperature, however, as does the world as a whole.

 

 

RAINFALL

 

As everyone will know, October was an extremely wet month, all of the 20 locations monitored here recording rainfall totals well above average.  This was probably the wettest October in the UK since 1903.  The greatest rainfall excess was in the south of England and the midlands.  Folkestone and Birmingham, for example, both recorded nearly three times their average October rainfall.  Again, Lerwick was the least anomalous, recording only 20 per cent more rainfall than usual.  During the last week of October, the country received nearly its entire average October rainfall. 

 

 

SUNSHINE

 

Despite the rather unpromising temperatures and high rainfall, October also managed to give us rather more sunshine than usual.  The country as a whole recorded 9 per cent above average and much of Scotland received more than 20 per cent more than usual.  Lerwick managed more sunshine than Lowestoft during the month, a rare achievement for October.  But even with all the rain over England, some parts also enjoyed high sunshine totals.  Bristol and Morecambe, for example, recorded 10 per cent more sunshine than the norm, despite receiving well over twice normal rainfall levels.  The sunniest day of the month was the 19th, with nearly 7 hours sunshine across the country.  In contrast the 28th recorded less than 1 hour of sun.

 

 

Dr Mike Hulme is a senior climate scientist at the University of East Anglia

(more details at website at www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~mikeh/)

 

October 2000: Very wet and rather cool

 

Daytime Temperature: 0.3C below average;          Rainfall:   86% above average;    Sunshine:  9% above average.

 

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

 

Mean monthly extremes:

 

Warmest          Guernsey                                        15.8C

Sunniest          Scarborough                          133 hours sun

Wettest          Morecambe                           246mm 

Coldest          Lerwick                                             11.1C

Cloudiest          Birmingham                           69 hours sun

Driest           Skegness                                        75mm