January 2005- a very unsettled period
There was a wet and windy start to 2005 as one active Atlantic depression after another ploughed across the northern UK. On January 12th though there was a particularly notable spell of unsettled weather. The storm was centred far to the west of Ireland on the 11th and began to deepen rapidly as it approached the west of Scotland during the day and brought a spell of damaging winds, in fact mean wind speeds approached sustained hurricane force and gusted to record breaking speeds in the far north and west for a time during the late evening and early morning period of the 11th/12th.
The Christmas blizzards of 1927
The so called 'Christmas Blizzard' of 1927 was one of the worst blizzards of the 20th century to hit the southern UK.On Christmas Eve, there was a cold ENE'ly flow across the UK bringing with it, snow showers to the east coast and night frosts.
November 2009 -a notably wet and windy month
November 2009 was, by any account, a wet month. Rainfall was around 190% across England and Wales but as high as 250% across NW England and central and southern Scotland. The only exception to this was East Anglia where rainfall was closer to average. However temperatures were above average overall & up to around 2.5C above average across the SE of England and East Anglia. Whilst maximum temperatures ended up slightly above average it was minimum temperatures that were generally well up on the average, with the incidence of frost well below average. The highest temperature of the month was reported at Heathrow (London) & Gravesend (Kent) on the 1st with 17.4C, whilst the lowest was tied, both Braemar (Aberdeenshire) and Cromdale (Highland) saw -8.6C on the 9th. Sunshine was well below average in the western UK but above average elsewhere especially eastern districts where 125% was reported.
A stormy period in late October 2006
It is fair to say that 2006 was quite an unsettled Autumn. After the effects of ex-Hurricane Gordon had been felt in September (see previous article for Sept 2011) October was also unsettled. It is true though that by the end of October we do tend to expect to see such autumnal storms developing. However, sometimes they are of such strength even then that they still manage to make the headlines. One such storm was that of the 26th October 2006, when a quickly deepening depression moved across Scotland into the northern North Sea. Strong winds on the north west and western side of the depression brought winds gusts to over 90mph across the NE Scottish mainland, which despite being used to such winds brought disruption across these parts.
September 2006 -ex hurricane Gordon
This is probably the key month when sometimes ex-hurricanes can make it across the Atlantic as they wind up. One example was in September 2006. A small but intense depression, associated partly the remains of hurricane 'Gordon' brought heavy rain and strong winds to western parts of the UK between the 21st and 22nd of September 2006.









