November was a month of two halves ... the first half was
strongly southwesterly with a cyclonic bias, and it brought
exceptionally mild but often wet and windy weather; the
second half was anticyclonic/northerly and was
characterised by cold but largely (though not exclusively)
dry weather. Both halves were sunny ... indeed November
2005 turned out to be the sunniest November in 125 years
of records.

More available:
Charts: http://www.climate-uk.com/monpre/0511.htm
The Monthly Review will appear in the next couple of
days at: http://www.climate-uk.com/monthly/0511.htm
Graphs: http://www.climate-uk.com/graphs/0511.htm and
http://www.climate-uk.com/graphs/200511.htm
Not The Long Range Forecast will be uploaded on Dec 3 to
http://www.climate-uk.com/page4.html

The mean sea-level chart shows a string of sub-polar low
pressure centres stretching from northern Quebec to the
Barents Sea instead of the usual Icelandic Low ... this
indicates that there was no single favoured location for low
pressure during the month; rather, the individual centres
represent short-lived episodes during the month when deep
depressions were located in these particular areas. The
Azores high was rather more intense than usual and displaced
a little to the north of its usual location, while high pressure
was prominent over southern Russia and Ukraine for the
third successive month.

The sea-level pressure anomaly field was relatively weak,
as one would expect in a month of two contrasting halves,
but there were notable anomaly centres of:
+6mbar over the central Atlantic
+6mbar east of Moscow
-6mbar over northern Norway
-6mbar over northern Quebec, and
-2mbar over the western Mediterranean
Over the British Isles pressure anomaly ranged from -3mbar
in Shetland to +2.5mbar in western Ireland. The anomalous
flow over the UK was NNW-ly.

CET (after Manley, rather than Hadley) 5.8°C (-1.1 degC
compared with 1971-2000 ... reasoning summarised
at http://www.climate-uk.com/page5.html
FWIW, the Hadley figure will probably come in at
6.2°C plus or minus 0.1; this substantial difference
between the two versions of the CET series is a
consequence of two of Hadley's sites, Stonyhurst and
Rothamsted, having lain above many of the shallow
inversions which produced sharp night frosts and
persistent daytime fog after mid-month.

The first half of November was the warmest since 1994,
while the second half was the coldest since 1993.

E&W Rain: 84.8mm ( 85% of 1971-2000 mean)
thus equalling the median value for the last 100 years
E&W Sunshine: 96.0 hr (144% of 1971-2000 mean)
breaking the previous Nov record of 89h set in 1988

CScotT: 6.0°C ( 0.0 degC)
ScotRain: 98.0mm ( 94%)
ScotSun: 63.5 hr (121%)

NIT: 6.9°C (-0.3 degC)
NI Rain: 64.0mm ( 67%)
NI Sun: 87.5 hr (140%)

Rainfall totals ranged from 366mm at Capel Curig (Snowdonia)
to 21mm at Southend (Essex). Percentages ranged from
195 at Boulmer (N'umberland) to 33 at Hastings (Sussex).

Sunshine totals ranged from 127.4hr at Copley (Co Durham ...
thanks Ken!) to 41.3 hr (KZ sensor), est. 48.2 hr (CS
recorder) at Aviemore (Inverness-shire). Percentages ranged
from 226 at Buxton (Derbys) to 93 at Aviemore.

It was the sunniest November, averaged over
England and Wales, since before 1881, and new station-
records were posted at more than 20 sites in eastern, central
and southern England, and one or two elsewhere as well.

(c) Philip Eden