The big weather events of October 2025 were Storm Amy, which passed through on the 3rd, and Storm Benjamin, which had a greater impact as it passed closer to us on the 23rd.

These storms, and the series of depressions before and after Storm Benjamin, are clear on the air pressure record, which also shows the settled spell of weather between the storms.

The low pressure as Benjamin passed on 23rd was a new record low for October of 974.3mb, beating the previous lowest of our 17 years of records set in 2023, and comfortably below the average monthly minimum for October of 989.1mb. Overall, however, the mean for the month was exactly our long term average of 1013.3mb.

October is our wettest month, the average across our 45 years of records being 73.5mm. Whilst it was a pretty wet end to the month, with the series of low pressure systems, the settled spell in the middle resulted in October being a little drier than average, with 57.0mm of rain. Drier than average but not exceptional. The wettest day was the 31st with 9.0mm, well below the average wettest day which is 18.6mm, and it rained on 18 days in the month, which is actually a day or so more than the long term average.

The temperatures were largely normal for the time of year, just slightly warmer than average. The top temperature for the month was 21.8°C on the 6th, compared with our long term average of 19.9°C, and the lowest was 2.6°C (long term average 2.4°C) on the 26th. The overall mean for the month was 11.8°C (long term average 11.1°C).

Storm Benjamin delivered the most rainfall, but Storm Amy delivered the highest winds. Our maximum gust of the month on the 4th was 33mph (Force 7 from the WNW), almost exactly our long term average peak wind for October. Benjamin could only manage a top wind of 29mph on the 23rd.

The settled spell mid month did not however deliver sunny days. The persistent wind direction for those days was a northerly or north-easterly with much cloud from off the North Sea. There were 11 days with no sun at all, and the remaining days delivered just 54 hours of sunshine. That’s a lot less than last year, the only other year we have sunshine records for, but as the Met Office has announced it was our dullest October for 60 years that isn’t surprising!

So will November continue the unsettled weather prevailing at the end of October? The average date in our records of the first frost of the winter is 25th November – will we have an earlier one, or indeed a frost-free November? Visit us next month for November’s weather summary!