Whatever the weather...
10 November 2010
This year's autumn has been broadly 'average', and showed no evidence of the effects of climate change according to one of the largest nationwide surveys ever carried out of autumn weather.
Teachers and schoolchildren were among over 250 people across the UK who tracked the arrival of autumn for the Weather Club, backed by the Royal Meteorological Society. They recorded about 2,000 observations about the weather over the course of a month between September and October, collecting data on temperatures, wind speed and leaf fall.
The highest temperature recorded was 24.8°C, in Peacehaven, East Sussex, down to -4.4°C at Stirling and Kinbrace in Scotland. The strongest gust of wind was 102mph, recorded at Cairngorm in Scotland.
However, conditions were roughly normal for the time of year, said Dr Liz Bentley, founder of the Weather Club, despite predictions that 2010 could be the warmest year on record.
'Over the course of the experiment the public have recorded torrential rain, beautiful clear skies, sub-zero temperatures, balmy Indian summer days, 100mph winds and thick fog,' she said. 'The data certainly confirms that as a small country we manage to squeeze in an extraordinary variety of weather conditions in a very short space of time.'