October 2011 day by day

October 2nd: In a slack SW'ly flow there were some large differences overnight in south, on coasts and hills temps fell no lower than 17-18C eg Kenley 17C but in valleys they fell much lower ,in fact there was a grass min of 4C at Bournemouth & Pershore giving high diurnal ranges. They soon rose though by day in sunshine in most parts, but it was a much cooler story further north as a warm front straddled Scotland with some rain here and in N Ireland. However by mid afternoon many parts of the east had reached 26-28C and Coningsby reached 29.3C, breaking the all time daily max record for the 4th day in a row.

October 3rd: To the NW of Scotland a deep low gave strong winds in a SWly flow in the far NW, Stornoway gusted to 58mph in the morning. A very mild night in places in the east in particular though with all the cloud, it didnt fall below 18.0C at Weybourne and several other sites making it the mildest October night on record. It was already warm by 09Z as well.Coningsby was the hottest though with 28.3C though this occurred in fresh or strong SW'ly winds and so the previous daily max record of 28.3C for the date was therefore equalled.It was also the 6th day in a row that 80F (26.7 deg. C.) had been reached or excceded somewhere in Britain.This was the final day of the late heatwave.

October 4th: A cooler cloudy and quite a breezy day everywhere esp in the far NW, as a deep low moved away NE here and the exposed station at Sule Skerry gusted to 63mph.

October 5th: Most of the UK was in the mild air of a warm front in a SWly flow with low north of Scotland and a further warm front SW of England by mid morning moving east. Yet again some very high mins this morning, 16.2C at Solent, 16.1C at Shoreham. In Brighton my Oregon WMR88 which I am currently reviewing, recorded 16.3C as a min here in Brighton, so very close to the other official values by met stations, which is always good to see.

October 6th: There was a general WNW'ly flow across the UK and as a low swung ESE across N Scotland and out into the N Sea mean strong winds ran into the NW; Machrihanish gusted 66mph .Wet too with Cluanie Inn in the Highlands recording 37mm and radar suggesting more like 50-70mm locally on upslopes. Later some heavy showers and thunderstorms -with hail up to 1cm in diameter reported in Lancs- ran into NW'ern parts & through the Cheshire Gap.

October 7th: Ex Hurricane Phillipe, though never close to the UK, staying out in mid Atlantic as it races north north east seems likely to drag some very warm air across the UK again by the end of the weekend into next week.. 564DAM into the SW but there'll likely be a lot of moisture this time .. it being a SW'ly rather than SSE'ly flow from the continent. If cloud breaks it might be warm but for many, especially in the west, there'll likely just be drizzle & low cloud which will not burn off at the this time of the year.

October 9th It was notably wet over western upslopes with some 40-60mm falling in places in the 12 hours to 12Z more esp in the Lake District and Western Scotland. The sun came out across much of the south at times where it became warm despite the breezy winds, and Frittenden (Kent) reached 22.6C despite the winds.

October 12th Fronts lay across northern England giving a lot of rain in places, parts of the uplands such as the Lake District seeing 20-35mm in the 12 hours to 09Z; Bainbridge (N Yorks) reported 33mm in 24 hours to 21Z; to the north there was a colder clearer night with Altnaharra (Surtherland) falling to -0.7C, the coldest night this autumn. Further south it was cloudy but very mild, several sites not falling below 15C overnight and reaching 20C by day.

October 13th: Yet another mild day with 20C reached somewhere across the UK for the tenth day this October although this is likely to be the last .

October 14th: Unusually the warmest place was one of the further north stations of the UKMO network; Althaharra (Sutherland) reaching 18.9C.

October 15th: It looks like the Hadley CET for the first half of October of 15.0C was still above that of summer 2011 as whole.. pretty remarkable really.It was the coldest night of the autumn so far today with South Newington (Oxon) as low as -2.0C and many places seeing their first frost of the autumn.

October 17th: The dry ground is giving some cold nights in the south atm, colder than might be expected and much colder than forecast, as several places fell to near freezing, Hurn (Dorset) fell to 1C and Farnborough (Hants) to -2C on the grass. However Hurn's temp rose very rapidly from 2.3C to 12.0C in an hour by 08Z as the sun rose and a breeze off the sea picked up. An occluded front and troughs brought some continuous moderate- heavy rain to the west and NW in a mainly moderate WSW'ly flow and here as colder air pushed in from the NW it was cold enough to turn to snow on hills across parts of N ireland and W & central Scotland. In Northern Ireland for instance the Glenshane Pass, and areas around Limavady and Omagh saw snow fall. Temperatures fell to as low as 1-2C in parts of N Ireland and W Scotland by late afternoon in the rain, sleet & snow. Cluanie Inn in the Western Highlands reported 41mm in the 24 hours to 21Z but radar estimates suggests more like 100mm in the wettest upslopes in the vicinity. There were reports of local flooding across N Ireland and central Scotland.

October 20th With high pressure dominating, a clear cold start for many places inland, the coldest of Autumn 2011 so far, with a widespread frost. Santon Downham fell -3.3C and Benson -3.2C and it fell -6C to on the grass and -7C on the grass at Hurn. It was fairly sunny by day though quite chilly for the date.

October 22nd It was very wet in NW Scotland with as much as 57mm at Cluanie Inn but locally more over upslopes.

October 23rd: A mild night in places and a mild day with 20.3C reached at Pershore College (Worcs) in the south in a gentle subsiding S'ly flow, just a degree off the daily record maxima; however it was very wet later in parts of N Ireland and Scotland and later far SW England as a front became slow moving, 33mm was recorded to 21Z in the 24 hours at Killlyane Reservoir in Northern Ireland -but more rain continued to fall after this time.

October 24th: As a front and associated rather deep low pressure became slow moving across the west heavy pulses of rain gave some high totals here. The heaviest rain was in the far west of Brittany and far W Scotland where 100-125mm fell in 24 hours and locally 150-175mm over the Scottish uplands was suggested by radar . N Ireland saw 40-50mm as well as did the far SW of England across Cornwall & W Devon with 30-45mm and minor flooding though some uplands around Bodmin and parts of the far west of Wales & Dartmoor saw 50-60mm though with flooding as a result in places. Cardinham near Bodmin reported 67mm to 21Z in a 24 hour period. Dublin also saw severe flooding by the evening. Search teams later located a missing policemans body in County Wicklow and the body of a woman was found by Irish police in a flooded basement in Dublin where the major emergency plan was operated following widespread flooding in the city. It was very mild though in places where the sun was out despite quite strong SE'ly winds, even Skye Lusa reached 18.5C along with Northolt in NW London.

 October 25th: As the heavy rain from the 24th slowly petered out several areas were left mopping up the resultant floodwater. Heavy showers developed, especially in the south and central regions again by the afternoon though, some thundery. A funnel cloud was spotted at Middle Wallop (Somerset) and a waterspout off the coast in Bexhill (E Sussex) during a thunderstorm. It was mild again though with 17.9C reached in the east at Gravesend (Kent) and St James Pk, in central London.

October 26th: Thundery showers continued overnight esp close to the south coast, for instance Brighton saw a thunderstorm with hail at about 3.30am.