Autumn arrived this month as the trees changed colour it has been a relatively frost free month. 
Over the UK it has been one of the warmest Octobers. Most likely the 10th warmest since records began in 1910. Its also been the 4th month in a row with warmer than average temperatures. This has been a quite remarkable turnaround as the first 6 months of the year were all below average! Will it continue into November and the rest of the year, we will see.
The notable weather this month has been the warm nights and the storm on the 28th October more on this below. It has also been a very wet & dull month.
October 28th Storm
This was one of the most sensationalized storms by the media for some time! With headlines mentioning hurricanes people were expecting even worse than it was.
In figures the maximum wind speed in a gust was 99mph on the Isle of Wight. Sustained wind speeds were around 25 – 35mph across the south. The track of the storm was unusual as it came across southern Britain and was still forming when it hit us. Also the trees were still full of leaves so quite a few trees fell unfortunately killing a few people. It also brought heavy rain.
Watford Summary for October 2013
Temperature (°C):
Mean Minimum 9.6
Mean Maximum 16.2
Minimum 2.2 day 29
Maximum 20.5 day 04
Highest Minimum 14.4 day 21
Lowest Maximum 12.0 day 10
Air frosts 0
Rainfall (mm):
Total for month 69.9
Wettest day 22.8 day 27
High rain rate 28.8 day 16
Rain days 16
Dry days 15
Wind (mph):
Highest Gust 16.8 day 27
Average Speed 0.2
Wind Run 127.1 miles
Gale days 0
Pressure (mb):
Maximum 1024.4 day 30
Minimum 990.4 day 27
The above data comes from my weather station.
Looking ahead into November its looking wet & mild and fairly windy. There doesn’t look like being any cold weather in the next 2 weeks which is good for most peoples fuel bills.
Links
https://metofficenews.wordpress.com/
https://www.climate-uk.com
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cet_info_mean.html
