UK seasonal weather summary – Autumn 2010

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 659 KB
• Volume: 66
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0043-1656
• DOI: 10.1002/wea.757

✦ Synopsis

The largely unremarkable weather of September and October came to a decisive end in November. This month produced a mix of un usual warmth, heavy rainfall, strong winds and, in the last week, severe frosts and significant snowfalls.

In September and October, mean temperatures across the UK were close to the 1971-2000 average. Each month had some warm days but also cold nights and the first widespread air frosts occurred around mid-October. The first week of November saw some unusually warm days (around 18°C) and nights (15°C), setting new November records at several places. Further temperature records for November were broken in the last week, in Wales and Northern Ireland, but this time for very cold days and nights. Due to this cold end, the monthly means were typically 1.5 to 2.0 degC below normal and it was the coldest November across the UK since 1993.

UK rainfall was above average during September (114%), but below during both October (85%) and November (94%). It was a particularly wet September in Northern Ireland (173% of average), the wettest there since September 1999. In the last week of November, persistent snow fell across eastern Scotland and northeast England giving accumulations of over 30cm widely. On 30th, snowfalls south and east of London gave over 20cm locally.

Sunshine durations were near average over the UK during September but around 20% above average in both October and November. Over Wales and Northern Ireland, October and November were amongst the sunniest on record for those months.