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