Sorry to start a new thread, but I can't find the old one. I'm
surprised so many people seem to think major blocking episodes
in October are unusual. I suppose it depends what you mean
by unusual: if simply "not usual" I suppose I might be persuaded
to agree, but if you mean "rare" then I demur.

Anyone who wants to see a a good example of blocking,
rare in its longlastedness, rare in its geographical extent, and
rare in the way one sort of block followed another, take a
trip to www.wetterzentrale.de and look at the archive for
Sept/Oct/Nov 1993. During that 91-day period there were
just four days with southwesterly weather type and one with
a westerly. (Yes, the subsequent winter was zonal).

In the last 10 years we have had major blocks in October on:
4-20 Oct 1994
17 Oct - 4 Nov 1997
30 Sept - 8 Oct 1998
11-22 Oct 1999
5-21 Oct 2002, which some of us seem to have forgotten
already.

Philip Eden