High Heaton Weather and Air Quality – November 2025

Weather

The first two weeks of November were exceptionally mild with temperatures in the mid-teens on most days. Then on Thursday 13^th Storm Claudia arrived in the UK and brought strong northerly winds and a sudden drop in temperature. The season’s first air frost occurred on Wednesday 19^th, and on 20^th and 21^st the temperature did not rise above 2.7°C.  The cold snap lasted until Wednesday 26^th on which day the month’s minimum temperature of -2.2°C was recorded at 7.45am. However a remarkably sudden rise in temperature then occurred, so that at the same time on the following morning the temperature was 14°C warmer!  During the cold period, 1cm of snow was lying on the morning of 19^th, and 3cms were lying on the 20^th.  The month’s maximum temperature was 16.4°C at 1.15pm on Tuesday 4^th. Over the whole month the average temperature was 7.4°C, which compares to the 30-year average of 6.8°C.  A notable feature of the month was the large amount of rainfall. There were only five days with no rain, and the month’s total of 130mm was almost twice the average for November. There have been only two wetter Novembers in the past 30 years.  The wettest day was Thursday 13^th when 21mm fell as storm Claudia passed through.  We have now reached the end of autumn, which this year was slightly warmer (by 0.2°C), and much wetter than average. More rain (283mm) fell in the three autumn months of September, October, and November than had fallen in the first eight months of the year.

 Air Quality

As usual the Guy Fawkes fireworks and bonfires had an adverse effect on air quality. The PM2.5 particle concentration peaked at 91µg/m³ at 7pm on November 5^th, although the average value for the whole day was only 25µg, which meant that the Air Quality Index (AQI) was at level 3 which is the highest of the ‘good’ classifications. The effects continued into the following day which had an average concentration of 43µg/m³, which meant that the AQI was at level 5 which is in the ‘moderate’ band. This was the only day in the month, and the first day since April, that the Air Quality was only moderate. The average PM2.5 concentration for the month was 8.5µg/m³, which is within the WHO recommended target, but higher than in recent months.

John Telfer