Stats point to average autumn

Early statistics for autumn 2013 suggest it has been a fairly normal season overall with temperature, rainfall and sunshine amounts all quite close to the long-term average, the Met Office says in its latest blog (below):

Our early season assessment for autumn (Sep-Nov) uses figures from 1 September to 27 November, then assumes average conditions for the final few days of November.

According to that estimate, the UK mean temperature for the season is currently 9.8 °C, just 0.4 °C above the long-term average.

UK rainfall over the same period was 331.7mm, which is about 96% of the long-term average. Sunshine is similarly close to average, with the UK’s 274.4 hours adding up to 97.3% of the long-term average.

As ever when looking over a season, there can be a lot of variation within the three months. For example, while September’s temperatures were average, October was well above average and November was slightly below – but overall they make a fairly average season.

Similarly with rainfall, the period from mid-October to mid-November was wet and unsettled, but the remainder of autumn has been generally on the dry side, so rainfall statistics are also unremarkable taken as a whole.

Autumn 2013 will most likely be remembered for featuring the St Jude’s Day storm, which was one of the most significant and disruptive storms to impact the UK in the past few years.

Full statistics for Autumn and November will be available on the Met Office's climate pages later next week.