Huddersfield Weather Watch - September 2014
Tue, 14 Oct 2014 14:19:00 BST
Driest on record
September experienced plenty of warm dry weather in stark contrast to the weather in August. It was the fourth warmest since our records began and the driest on record; wind speeds were also very low for the time of year. Looking at the UK as a whole it was only the fifth time that the UK mean temperature for September has equalled or exceeded that for August. This was provisionally the driest September in a series since 1910, though only slightly drier than 1959. It was also the driest calendar month for the UK since August 1995 (Met Office). All average figures are those recorded since 1990 from the School of Applied Sciences weather station.
The monthly mean temperature was 14.9˚C compared to the average for September of 14.25˚C. The warmest day of the month was Friday 5th with an average temperature of 18.5˚C; the highest maximum temperature of 24.5˚C was also recorded on this day. The coldest day of the month was Sunday 21st with an average temperature of 11.0 ˚C; the lowest minimum temperature of 5.6˚C was also recorded on this day.
It was the driest September since our records began with a rainfall total of just 12.2mm. The wettest day of the month was Saturday 6th with 5.6mm of rainfall – 45.9% of the month’s total. Twenty days of the month escaped rainfall with the driest spell falling between Monday 8th and Saturday 13th inclusive.
September saw the lowest average figures for wind speed since our newest weather station was installed in 2005. The mean wind speed for the month was 8.17km/hr compared to the average for the month of 10.7km/hr. The highest mean wind speed was 20.88km/hr recorded on Thursday 25th. The highest gust of wind for the whole month was 75.24km/hr again recorded on Thursday 25th.
The prevailing wind direction was south west.
Julie Walker
Resource Centre and Environmental Technician
School of Applied Sciences
