BBC News Online: UK

Britons bask in balmy October

Not everyone would agree that October has been a good month for weather

Average temperatures this month have been the highest since records began in 1659.

The previous all-time record average was 13 C (55.4 F) in October 1969. Last October's average was a more autumnal 10.6 C. The highest October temperature for a single day was 29.4 C on 1 October, 1985.

The Met Office puts the recent unusually warm temperatures down to winds blowing from the south, bringing mild air from the Atlantic, Spain and the Canaries.

Ground frosts

Spokesman Andy Yeatman said: "A temperature like this in October is a very rare event. It is a record, but it follows a trend in recent years for quite warm Octobers. Last October was the exception.

"It was particularly warm in the middle of this month - on the 13th - when the temperature in Hearne Bay was 25.3 C, which is much more like summer than winter.

"This weather extreme is another piece of the jigsaw towards the global warming theory."

Another surge of warm air is due to arrive on Tuesday with afternoon temperatures likely to touch 20 or 21 C (68-70 F) across some central and southern parts of the UK, making them as warm as Greece and Crete.

But colder weather is on the cards for the start of November with the first ground frosts of the season in some parts of the UK.