November 2014 was in direct contrast to the last two years being warmer than average. The mean temperature was 7.6C, which is 1C above the long-term average. The warmest day was the 1st with a maximum of 16.4C but the opposite occurred on the 25th with a maximum of only 6.1C. It was the warmest November since 2011. An air frost was noted on four days with a minimum of -3.4C on the 25th.
An analysis of the diurnal temperatures shows a rising trend. Since the 1980s there has been an increase of over 2C in the range between the coldest night and the warmest day.
The rainfall total was 122.4mm, which is 136% of the long-term average or +31mm. This is far less than the record of 203.4mm set in 2002 but considerably more than the very dry November in 1990 which produced just 27.8mm. There were 18 wet days when daily rainfall equalled or exceeded 1mm. Again there has been a rising trend over the last thirty years in ‘wet’ days with an increase of two days a month since 1984 when my records began. The wettest day was the 11th when 14.8mm was recorded although there were seven days when totals ran into double figures. It has also been the wettest eleven months of any year with a total now of 1043mm when the annual average is 845mm.
The global sunshine was close to the average. Average soil temperature, at a depth of 5cm, was 7.5C with a minimum of 1.7C on the 25th. Fog occurred on four days but cleared by midday.
Autumn 2014 was the warmest since 2011 being 1.2C above the long-term average. It was the third warmest I have recorded since 1984.
There were only four air frosts during the three months, the lowest occurrence in three years. In 2010 the record was set with 19 air frosts.
Rainfall for the three months totalled 256mm, which is just 14mm above the long-term average. The extremes were 401mm in 2006 and 116mm in 1985.
