November was a strange month… It started off with ‘anticyclonic gloom’ – a couple of weeks of settled dry weather but under a near permanent heavy blanket of cloud. Then we had a short cold spell, with short-lived snow overnight from 18th-19th, and the first frost of the winter. This brief wintry spell was then followed by stormy weather, with Storm Bert battering us on 23rd-24th. About the only weather we didn’t get was sunshine!

We don’t often start the graphs with the air pressure, but it shows these swings well. After the settled start we had a series of low pressure systems, with Storm Bert providing the lowest pressure on 24th, of 992.3 hPa, actually not as low as the average minimum for November in our records, which is 989.2 hPa. Surprisingly, the highest pressure of the month of 1036.3 hPa on the 11th made it the 4th highest November pressure of our 16 years of comparable records.

The temperature chart also reflects this. And yes, it was yet another month where the average temperature was above the long term average – a mean for the month of 7.5°C compared with the average for the 40 years of our records of 7.0°C – that’s now the sixteenth month in a row that this has happened.

Surprisingly, the lowest day maximum of 2.4°C on 21st made it the 6th coolest day maximum for November in our records, and yet just three days later we recorded the maximum temperature for the month of 17.2°C, the third warmest November day in our records! The first frost of the winter came on the 20th, with -1.7°C recorded; that’s five days earlier than our average first frost date.

As for rain, the total for the month was 57.4mm, a little under our average for November of 62.1mm. The wettest day was the 12th, with 19.4mm, more than would be the norm but not exceptional. Overall it rained on 18 days, which is typical, and perhaps a bit surprising given the settled if gloomy start to the month.

The wind was in the north a lot in November, and unusually was the predominant direction over the month. The wet end to the month saw the main direction return to a south or south-westerly quarter. The strongest winds of the month were associated with Storm Bert but were not exceptional, topping at 36mph, or Force 7.

And finally to the sunshine. The chart shows the gloomy weather at the start of the month all too well: there were just 11 minutes of sunshine in the first ten days of the month, and altogether only 13 days in the month with any sun at all, for a grand total of 31.8 hours of sun.

December has started off still unsettled but mild. Will there be any further wintry weather? Will the year finish with every single month warmer than the long term average? Find out by coming back next month!

Measure	Unit	Minimum	Average	Maximum	Average min	Average max	Total
Relative humidity	%	69	86	95
Temperature	°C	-1.7	7.5	17.2	5.2	10.3
Wind source (most common/highest gust)	Sector		N	N
Wind speed	mph		2.3	36		14.2
Rain daily accumulation	mm		1.9	19.4			57.4
Barometric pressure	hPa	992.3	1019.2	1036.3
Solar irradiance during daylight	W/m² kWh/m²		73	452		202	19.3
Sunshine (according to University of California formula)	Hours		1.1	4.9			31.8