UK enjoys driest October for 65 years

A boy in a witch's hat running over the River Kelvin, Glasgow, surrounded by autumn colour

The UK has had its driest October for 65 years, the Met Office has revealed, with northern Scotland seeing its sunniest October on record.

Britain braced itself for an Indian summer when the Met Office predicted this month would see the mercury rise to as much as 20C.

But despite temperatures reaching the heights of 18C and an average of 13.3C, the UK saw one of the driest Octobers ever with a third less rain then expected.

Nicky Maxey of the Met Office said: “It’s been sunny in northern Scotland particularly, where they have had the sunniest and one of the driest Octobers on record.

“The UK has been very dry and sunny, with it being the fourth driest for the UK on record.

“The western part of Scotland, most of Wales, part of Northern Ireland and many western, central and southern parts of England have had a third or less of their average October rainfall.”

The driest October since records began in 1910 was in 1946, when only 31.6 millimetres of water fell. Second is 1947 with 40 millimetres, closely followed by 1951 with 41.1 millimetres.

Mr Maxey added: “As far as temperature is concerned it depends where you are, but it’s been average. The average temperature has been 13.3C and around 25th hottest on record.

“The other thing is sunshine, Scotland had 24 per cent above average sunshine in October whereas the UK was nine per cent above average.

“North Scotland has seen the sunniest October on record with Wales 13 per cent above average but England only two per cent.

“It’s been quite dry and sunny but the temperature hasn’t been that much above average.”