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graphs      CLIMATE-UK.COM'S  REVIEW  OF  THE  BRITISH  METEOROLOGICAL  SCENE
     MONTHLY  SUMMARY
     No. 574 For   OCTOBER  2004
             COLD AND SUNNY; MOSTLY DRY TILL THE LAST FEW DAYS
Text Box: This was a month of contrasting episodes but winds from the west and southwest were notable for their absence. Pressure at sea-level was 11mbar above normal just south of Iceland and 8mbar below over eastern Europe, and the anomalous flow over the British Isles was strongly northerly. Low pressure over Biscay brought showers to southern districts on the 1st and 2nd, but central and northern Britain were dry and sunny, and it was also quite warm in most areas; the month's highest temperature of 22.1°C was recorded at Saunton Sands (Devon) on the 2nd. Fronts swept southeastwards across the country on the 3rd, and again overnight 5th/6th, each time introducing a brief northwesterly outbreak with cold winds, blustery showers (wintry over the Scottish hills) and local thunder, but also sunny intervals. A gust of 68kn was recorded at Barra (Western Isles) on the 6th. Further fronts introduced warmer air on the 8th and 9th with 21°C reached locally in southern England. Although Waterstein (Skye) reported a total of 100mm between the 2rd and 10th, rainfall amounts in other parts of the UK were mostly quite small, and much of the South and East had negligible rain. An anticyclone developed over the UK on the 11th but it soon transferred to southern Scandinavia and a southeasterly airflow prevailed across the country until the 18th. This was a dry and sunny period in all regions, often with wide diurnal temperature ranges. Herne Bay (Kent) recorded 73hr of sunshine between the 11th and 18th inclusive. On the 18th and 19th highest pressure transferred to eastern Greenland, winds backed northeasterly, and it became appreciably colder in all regions.
Text Box: The next six days were decidedly wintry as disturbances in the northeasterly flow travelled slowly southwards. Snow showers fell widely in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northeast England on the 20th and 21st (58mm of rain in 60hr at Charterhall in Berwickshire), with rain and hail showers further south (43mm in 36hr at Margate, Kent); 10cm of snow lay in the Huntly (Aberdeenshire) district early on the 20th, and unofficial reports indicated that 25cm lay above 400m in the Lammermuir and Moorfoot Hills in southeast Scotland the next morning. Carterhouse (Roxburghshire) recorded a maximum of just 2.6°C on the 21st, and Shap (Cumbria) a minimum of -6.9°C early on the 22nd. That day, heavy and prolonged rain fell across southern England (53mm in 36h at St Catherine's Point on the Isle of Wight), snow fell over Exmoor and Dartmoor, and the maximum at Liscombe on Exmoor was just 4.1°C. Wintry showers recurred between the 23rd and 25th, and frost was widespread at night. Westerly winds brought warmer weather to Scotland on the 28th with 18.2°C at Aberdeen airport, but the last three days were rather cold and very unsettled with long periods of rain, heavy at times, in most places; 70.6mm fell at Cardinham (Cornwall) in 72hr. The provisional Central England Temperature of 9.3°C was 1.1 degC below the 1971-2000 norm, making this the coldest October since 1993. It was an exceptionally dry month in the Perth/Stirling and Carlisle areas with just 10-12mm of rain, and over the UK as a whole monthly rainfall was about 25 per cent below normal. Sunshine was 30 to 40 per cent above the long-term mean over most of the country.
                                                                                                                                           
                       TEMPERATURE                                SUNSHINE                             RAINFALL                                                       
                                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                   
                                          Highest and lowest totals                     Highest and lowest totals        
                                              on record for month    
Maximum fall in 24 hrs (beginning 09 h)
                    on record for month    
Days with snow or sleet
 
Days with fog (Vis <220 yards at 09 h)
 
                                                                                         
     
Difference from average
   
Difference from average
 
Highest maximum
   
Lowest minimum
   
No. of days with grass minimum below 0ºC
   
Days of no sunshine
 
Maximum duration
       
First year of record
         
Days of no rainfall (0.1 mm or less)
         
First year of record
         
Days with thunder
     
       PLACE  
Mean Maximum
   
Mean minimum