October brought us a mixed bag of weather, both notably warm days and cold nights at times and with both wet and dry spells. The month could very nearly be divided into thirds, a mild first third with rain and a westerly airflow, a second third of cold and dry conditions brought by high pressure moving in from the east and a wetter and just slightly warmer final third of the month, more so in the final week.

   The month as a whole was noticeably colder than October 2009 and despite my limited data, it recorded by far the lowest October temp' and the lowest mean minimum temp, but also the highest maximum temperature. Regionally it was very much bang on average. Rainfall was very average based on the previous three years.

   The month started with a succession of bad days followed by a reasonable day as a westerly flow dominated and a succession of fronts swept through bringing some large daily amounts of rain. The 1st saw a deepening low (979 Mb) south of Iceland bringing fronts to the UK and for us 12.7 mm of rain and strong winds.

   The 2nd saw us in a slack area behind the front of the 1st as it moved south and we saw some watery sun. But that low pressure was still out in the Atlantic and the 3rd saw another 11.1 mm of rain as a warm wave front pushed north through SW of the UK+Wales. Back to a slack area behind the previous days front on the 4th, but this was a lovely sunny day and at 16.7°c (62.06°F) very pleasant. The 4th also saw the month's highest minimum temp' at 10.3°c.

   But to continue the trend, the 5th brought yet more rain (5.7 mm - although overnight) but we had seen some sunny intervals in the afternoon. High pressure (1032 Mb) over the USSR was moving west but there was a slow moving deep depression in the Atlantic NW of Scotland and the fronts from this brought that rain.

   The rain continued into a.m. of the 6th as a series of showers swept through on a front that was pushing NE.

   The 7th may have started damp and cloudy, but from 1030 hrs the sun broke through to a give us a fine sunny day and the month's warmest maximum at 19.6°c (67.28°F) - you can't complain at that for October!! We were in a warm SW'ly flow and whilst a little breezy it was the source of our warm weather.

   We then had a succession of dry but cloudy days for the 8th + 9th as the front from the 6/7th was now backing up the country as a result of a rapidly building deep depression SW of the UK. Warm air behind it bringing us those cloudy conditions. Now we were introducing an ESE'ly airflow caused by high pressure (1033 Mb) near to Iceland and low pressure (995 Mb) to our SW. A colder phase was beginning.

   The 10th started cloudy before the sun broke out mid a.m. and whilst day-time temps were quite reasonable for the 10/11th, night-time temperatures were slipping away and the 12th brought out first ground frost, -1.5°c, of the season.

   Both the 11th + 12th were lovely days (after early fog on 11th), as high pressure (1030 Mb) established itself to the north of the UK. This high pressure on the 12th was 1027 Mb and over the Faroe isles, 13th/14th (1025 Mb) to the east of Scotland and still giving us a stable E'ly flow.

   Day-time temps were now dropping to 11-12°c and from the 13th low cloud and mist became more common. Come the 15th it was high pressure (1030 Mb) to the west of Eire that now brought a Northerly flow over its top edge and a weak cold front brought us some light rain as it moved south.

   16th - 18th brought cloudy but bright days and some rain as the high pressure slipped away allowing fronts from low pressure over Iceland to push our way. In the early hours of the 17th the temp' dipped to -0.3°c bringing the first air frost of the season and also the earliest Autumn air frost that I have recorded here at Maulds Meaburn. It also brought the third ground frost of the season and the 100th for the year.

   The 19th was also cold with a NW'ly wind blown in on a cold front pushing south and then the 20th brought the month's coldest day at just 6.8°c (44.24°F) and this was following a very cold night that went down to -3.4°c with a ground frost of -7.1°c - but under clear skies it was a sunny day.

   The 22nd though saw a horrible day with 18.9mm of rain. A stationary front was over Scotland and whilst we had wind and showers a wave front over Eire from low pressure (1008 Mb) came our way with more rain.

   The 23rd/24th saw us back under a ridge of high pressure that extended south from Iceland and with it a N'ly flow that brought a distinct chill but also sunny days. The temp' again fell away after dark and we had further air frosts with the months coldest night of -3.9°c (24.98°F) (ground frost of -7.2°c) coming on the morning of the 25th and the temp' remained below freezing through to mid morning.

   An area of high pressure (1028 Mb) centred over Wales had brought that fine/cold weather on the 25th but a depression (980 Mb) in the Atlantic was now moving east. The 26th saw the high pressure slip SE and which allowed a complex series of fronts circulating around that low pressure to bring wind and rain. The month was to end both wet and windy.

   The 26th brought 4.8mm of rain and winds from the SW gusting upto 41 mph. The early hours of the 27th saw us take a bit of a battering with a gust of 51 mph and further rain through the night.

   28th saw a cold front over the UK still with a strong SW'ly flow but the evening and into the 29th saw further heavy rain that lasted most of the daylight hours. Come tea-time though the wind really picked up, gusting to 50 mph and this caused trees/branches to fall onto power lines and we ended up with a power cut that lasted some 12 hours.

   Low pressure (970 Mb) centred west of the UK was drawing warm and moist air up from the SW resulting in the unsettled conditions through this period. The 30th saw the flow back to a W'ly as the low pressure now moved north of Scotland and this brought us showers and another 4.0mm of rain.

   The month ended on a benign note, calm, damp and cloudy as we sat in a slack area in the middle of two areas of low pressure.

   The Mean Temperature for the month was 8.67°c+     - the Mean Max' was 12.35°c and the Mean Min' 4.99°c.

   We had 4 Air Frosts in the month (63 for 2010) and Grass frosts totalled 8 (101 for 2010).

  COMPARISONS:-

   * October 10 rainfall was 78.15% of the October average for 07/08/09

   * October 10 was 1.18°c colder than October 2009 +

   * October saw 19 rain days of which 15 were wet days.

  * The 3 month mean for August/September/October 2010 is                   TEMP'    11.60°c          -          RAIN    234.1 mm


  *                     August/September/October 2009 was                   TEMP'    12.33°c          -          RAIN    203.6 mm

  *                     August/September/October 2008 was                   TEMP'                     -          RAIN    481.3 mm

  *                     August/September/October 2007 was                   TEMP'                     -          RAIN    196.9 mm


 


                                        * 2010    TO DATE                   TEMP'     8.73°c          -          RAIN     550.5 mm

                                        * 2009  Jan - Oct                   TEMP'     9.75°c          -          RAIN     854.3 mm

                                        * 2008  Jan - Oct                   TEMP'                     -          RAIN    1205.0 mm