Austen, the first named storm of the season, came up the Channel late on Thursday 22 October, with southerly winds reaching gale force in the early hours of the Friday.
The strongest gust, 66 knots, was recorded at 5.41am and was the highest October gust since 1987.
A second storm, Boelo, followed soon after, bringing heavy and persistent rain from soon after dawn on the 24th, with gales by dusk. The 28.7mm recorded that day made it the wettest day of the month.
The storms helped make October wetter than usual, with a total of 122.9mm of rain falling, about a quarter above the 1991-2020 average of 97.9mm.
But the month was also warmer and much sunnier than average. The mean temperature was 14C against an average of 13.2C, and there were 163.1 hours of sunshine, 43 more than usual.
October began with high pressure over continental Europe.
The first day of the month had more than 10 hours of sunshine and a high of 18.7C and temperatures passed 20C on the 4th, 5th and 6th, peaking at 22.1C on the 6th.
In the middle of the month, ex-hurricane Isaias, by then sitting south of Iceland, drew warm air north and gave the islands several more days of unseasonable temperatures.
The month ended under high pressure, with dry, sunny days in the mid-teens and cooler nights.
The Met Office said the rolling 12-month sunshine total of 2,194.2 hours made this the sunniest period for the time of year in 36 years.
You need to be logged in to comment.