September the hottest since records began
LAST month was the warmest September since records began in 1843, the Guernsey Met Office has said.
The mean temperature of 18.3C was some 1.2C warmer than either July or August.
‘A maximum temperature of 29.5C, on the 9th, was also the highest recorded this year and the highest for this month since 1961,’ a Met Office spokesman said.
‘An overnight minimum of 19.3C gave us the warmest September night since 2005.’
The hottest day of the month was a weekend busy with events, including the Proms on the Wicket concert at the KGV and the Sark Harbour Carnival.
More than 60% of the rain for the month – 34mm out of 55mm – fell on the weekend of the 16th and 17th. That resulted in a very wet time for inaugural rock festival Vraicfest, which was held on the 16th, when 27mm of rain fell. That made it the wettest September day in 11 years.
However there was no, or only trace, rain for 18 days of the month, and the rainfall total was close to the September average.
There were 184 hours of sunshine over the month – an average of six hours a day – which was also close to the September average.
The Met Office noted that there was Saharan sand on 6 September, and there were thunderstorms on 10, 17 and 27 September. The latter was the day Storm Agnes, the first named storm of the year, swept across the UK and Ireland. In Wales winds of up to 80mph were recorded. But Guernsey largely escaped the storm, with a top wind speed of 33 knots that day, which did not even make it Guernsey’s windiest day during September.
