Richard Slessor wrote:
It's been very dull here too, especially since the 15th. I don't know
the exact total, because I don't have a recorder, but would guess at
around 65-70 hours (average 97 hours). I used to keep daily sunshine
totals from the newspapers but now the Guardian no longer publishes a
Saturday summary and seems to publish Thursday's figures on Saturday
instead of Friday's.

1960 was the dullest October in Aberdeen. Dyce recorded only 30 hours
sunshine for the month with just 29 hours recorded at Craibstone. Other
dull ones were 1885 with 47 hours, 1982 with 55 hours, 1940 with 61
hours and 1946 with 65 hours.

I suspect that the combined total for Octobers 2004 (72 hours) and 2005
(?) will be lucky to exceed that of October 2003 (138 hours) and will
certainly be less than the 157 hours recorded in October 1986.

December 2002 had only 16 hours of sunshine at Dyce with 23 completely
sunless days. It was the most awful month I can remember. There was
rain on 26 days, no snow at all and only a few frosts in the middle of
the month.

The worst weather month I can recall was definitely mid-November to
mid-December 2002 in Newcastle, where I was at the time. Almost no sun,
no frost, snow (despite that latter being constantly forecast from
about 4 December on) or even mild sunny days; just low grey cloud with
rain and drizzle.
January and March of 1996 here in Shrewsbury were not much better
sun-wise, but each month at least produced some cold and snow, and when
the skies finally cleared in the last week of March there was that
Comet Hyakutake to enjoy. October 2004 in Shrewsbury was pretty grim as
well, as was October 1987 in South Wales (no hurricane force winds
BTW).

Edmund