October 2014 will be remembered for the above average temperatures throughout much of the month but also for the dismal few days from the 12th to the 18th.
The average temperature was 11.99C, which is 1.5C above the long-term average. The extremes were 12.77C in 2001 and 6.95 in 1992. Highlights were the very warm days at the start of the month but the warmest day was on the 31st when the thermometer peaked at 20.7C. The record for this month is a high of 26.7C, which occurred on 1st October in 2011. The warmest night of the month was recorded on the 31st when the thermometer did not drop below 13.8C, which is very close to the average day temperature. The 5th brought the coldest night with a minimum of 0.7C.
With the wind coming from a southerly quarter for 21 days it is not surprising to find that there were no air frosts during the month. Previous to the year 2000 at least one air frost was recorded in each October but in the last 14 years, eight have been free of air frosts.
Rainfall fell predominantly during the first half of the month with large falls of over 10 mm on three days and a maximum of 14.1mm on the 13th. The total rainfall amounted to 92.2mm, which is close to the long-term average of 88.9mm. This total is far less than the heavy rainfall in the previous two years. However, the extremes occurred in 2004 with 159.3mm and in 2003 that was very dry with only 36.8mm. There were only ten dry days during the whole of the month.
Many days were quite windy with four days producing maxima in excess of 30mph. The peak gust occurred on 21st with a maximum of 38mph.
Sunshine amounted to 66 hours during the month. The two sunniest days were 7th and 28th when 6.16 hours and 6.19 hours were recorded respectively. There were six days when no sunshine was recorded, mainly occurring in the middle of the month and the 29th.
