Monthly summary October 2011

October 2011 has been a memorable month for a variety of reasons. It started with a record maximum for October at this station, of 26.7º on the 1st, yet in the middle of the month a chilly maximum of only 10.4º was recorded on the 20th. At the end of the month the minimum temperatures were equal to the average maximum for October, some 7º above the long-term average. The mean temperature for October was 12.1º which is 1.8º above the long-term average.

Until the 24th it was a very dry month and heading for a record for October. However, several days with significant rainfall from the 24th gave a total of 41.2mm, which is 47% of the long-term average and the third driest October since 1984. The wettest day was the 26th with 9.8mm. It is interesting to find that the past twelve months have been the driest twelve-month period since November 1997.

During the latter part of the month, the 27th was a miserable day with zero sunshine and subsequently little solar radiation, giving the lowest values since February 2011.

This will be the sixth year since my station started in 1984 that we have not experienced an air frost in October, though very close to it with a heavy grass frost on the morning of the 20th (minimum air temperature of 0.1º). Previous to 2000 we always experienced air frosts in October with an average of 7 each year.

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