High Heaton Weather – November

The settled dry and warm, but mainly cloudy weather of late October continued during the first two weeks of November which were unusually mild for the time of year. There was a sudden change on Sunday the 17^th when cold air from the Arctic arrived and we had six consecutive days when the temperature rarely exceeded 4°C.  Monday the 18^th was the coldest day in this period with a maximum temperature of only 2.8°C, and the season’s first air frost occurred in the early morning of the same day.  There were a few flurries of snow on the evening of Tuesday 19^th.  However Storm Bert arrived on Saturday 23^rd and brought with it an extraordinary day of contrasts. The day began very unpleasantly with sleet and snow accompanied by a strong westerly wind. There followed an astonishing rise in temperature of 14 degrees C in less than 24 hours as the wind backed to a southerly direction. It rained throughout the day making it the wettest day of the month with 18mm falling. This was the first substantial rainfall for six weeks. Storm Bert was not accompanied by any damaging wind in our area, the maximum gusts being only 32mph on Sunday 24^th. The mild weather only lasted for three days and the rest of the month was quite cold with a frost occurring on several nights.

The month’s maximum temperature was 14.6°C at 1.30pm on Wednesday 6^th, and the minimum temperature was -2.3°C at 3.45am on Thursday 21^st, this being the lowest November temperature since 2020. The mild and cold periods cancelled out so the average temperature of 6.8°C was equal to the 30 year mean for November. Total rainfall for the month was 33mm which 48% of the average amount for November.  We have now reached the end of autumn.

Overall it was a typical autumn with 182mm of rain which is 95% of the mean, and an average temperature of 10.0°C which is only 0.1°C below the mean value of the last 30 years.

ohn Telfer