The Icelandic Low was virtually absent from the mean monthly pressure chart,
and the main centres of low pressure were 1003 mbar in the Barents Sea
(ie off northern Norway) and 1004 mbar over northern Quebec. There were
also small low centres of 1012 mbar just west of Lisbon and 1013 mbar
near Corsica. The Azores high was prominent, centred 700km north of its
normal position, and more intense than usual at 1025 mbar. Pressure was
also higher than normal over Greenland. The mean flow over the British
Isles was weakly northwesterly.

The main anomaly centres we
+11 mbar just south of Iceland
-8 mbar over Belarus
-6 mbar just southwest of Lisbon
-6 mbar over southwest Quebec
The anomalous flow over the British Isles was strongly NNE-ly.

Provisional CET of 9.5ºC was 0.9 degC below the 1971-2000 mean
E & W rainfall of 65mm was 20 per cent below
E & W sunshine of 135h was 30 per cent above

By these measures it was the coldest October since 1993,
the driest since 1995 and the sunniest since 1997. Other sunny
Octobers were 1921 (141%), 1959 (139%), 1919 (137%),
1997 (135%), and 1971 (134%).

The anomalies for Scotland were -1.1 degC, 72% and 137%
and for Northern Ireland, -1.2 degC, 92% and 115%.

The three month period Aug-Oct inc. over England and Wales
delivered 122mm (49%), the lowest for this particular group of
months since 1972, but nowhere near the 84mm attributed to
Aug-Oct 1947. It also brought 535h of sunshine (126%), the
highest since 1959.

(c) Philip Eden