‘If November has to come, let it be November 2011’.

Personally, I have never liked November; the gathering
darkness, continual dampness and the first cold, dismiss any hope of
pretending that summer times still linger. But this year, ‘wow’. The
mildness has been quite extraordinary, with day maxima still reaching
17C as late as the 13th, and over 16C on the 18th.  My average maximum
temperature for the month was just over 14.7C, which would have been
good if it had been April. There were two light air frosts, the lower of
these occuring on the 28th at -1.1C. But I know that my minimum
thermometer records low anyway, and so this reading was not severe
enough to finish off the fuschias which continue to flower merrily. The
mean temperature of nearly 10.6C surpassed by over a degree that of
November 2009, which was a completely frostfree month due to the
excessive rainfall (193.3mm) and cloudiness. This month’s rainfall total
of 79.1mm recorded on 14 days, made it drier than average. Rain fell on
26 days in November 2009. This year was slightly drier than last, but
not as dry as 2008 with 58.6mm. So the implication is that November this
year was a sunnier month than many, as we bathed in warm southerly winds
coming up from the Med.

Returning to the temperature. I estimate that this month’s mean figure was about 3.5C above average.  The nearest approach to this figure I have was in November 2002, with a reading of 10.3C. However, as is usually the case with very mild Novembers, this one
recorded a soaking 225mm.

The Autumn as a whole has turned out very mild with an
average temperature over nearly 13.1C. Compare that to 2010, at 10.4C,
with fourteen Air Frosts, as opposed to just two this year.  Rainfall
has been low, with a total for the three months of 190.9mm, contrasted
with 267mm last year. I cannot find one drier, but my records are not
complete before 2005.

I am expecting to see records broken nationwide for both
temperature and rainfall this year.

Peter at Pottlelake