UK Review - October 2009

Many areas enjoyed an 'Indian summer' towards the end of the month.

For almost three weeks, most of the country experienced uneventful weather.

Much of the UK enjoyed an 'Indian summer' during the last ten days of the month, with plenty of fine weather and temperatures around 5C above normal for the time of year.

In contrast, on the 21st and 22nd parts of Aberdeenshire collected around 100mm of rainfall, leading to local surface flooding.

Another spell of wet weather followed on the 24th, which also caused local flooding and transport disruption, particularly to the rail services.

Statistics

Mean temperatures were generally above the 1971-2000 average for October, typically by between 1.0C and 1.5C. This was largely due to very mild conditions during the last 10 days of the month.

Rainfall was below the seasonal average for most of the UK, particularly across south-east England, the Midlands and north-west England, where between 50% and 70% of the October average was recorded.

In contrast, it was wetter than average for October across north-east Scotland, with over 150% of the seasonal average recorded in Aberdeenshire.

Sunshine was generally close to or below normal for the time of year.

A maximum temperature of 21.2C was recorded at Coningsby (Lincolnshire) on the 6th.

A minimum temperature of -4.0C was recorded at Tyndrum (Stirlingshire) on the 17th.

In the 24 hours ending at 0900 on the 22nd, 90.3mm of rainfall was recorded at Durris (Aberdeenshire).

On the 3rd, a gust of 73mph was recorded at High Bradfield (South Yorkshire) and one of 70mph was recorded at Tain Range (Highland).