A Very Peculiar October

[Weather-history]

October 1888 was very unusual, it start of with record breaking minima with lying snow in places and ended with record breaking maxima.

2nd October: -4.9C (23.2F) at Stapleton (North Yorks.)

27th October : 20.3C (68.5F) at Old Street , London (The record maximum for that date until 2005)

Here are some reports from this October

1st: Otterburn-in Craven: Snow from 9 to 12 o'clock; Thixendale: Fall of snow; Shap: Heavy fall of snow; Llanwrtyd Wells: Snow at night; Llanidloes: About 4 inches of snow fell at night

2nd: Snow 2 inches deep on the hills

3rd: Rochester: Ice, 0.25" thick, a most unusual occurrence; Berkampstead: The havoc made in the garden by this frost was extraordinary, a large walnut tree had every leaf destroyed and every walnut on it frozen through; Thixendale: Ice 0.5" thick

4th: Drumnadroicht: Snow on low ground

Littlehampton: The sharpest frosts ever registered in October occurred at the beginning of the month, but vegetation recovered wonderfully, heliotrope, mignonette, pomegranate and myrtle being in full bloom.

Oxford: A ridiculous month beginning with snow and frost and ending with a temp. of 67F on 27th.

Hitchen: On the 27th, the max temp was 68.0F, snow on the 2nd

Addington: Perhaps one of the most remarkable Octobers on record for number of frosty nights (17). The min. temps were exceptionally low for the first three weeks, and as remarkably high during the remainder of the month.

Woolstaston: Snow on the 1st

Orleton: Snow covered the land two inches deep. At 9am on the 24th, the shade temp was 33F and at 9am on the 25th, it was 56F

Manchester: October began with a wintry aspect and there were several frosty nights and some slight falls of snow

Cargen: Mean temp of first week: 40.7F, mean temp of the last week: 52.7F Snow on the 1st and 4th

Oban: Snow on the hills on the 1st that lasted to the 7th

CET trackometer

1. 6.1

2. 5.1

3. 5.2

4. 5.3

5. 5.2

6. 5.0

7. 5.0

8. 5.2

9. 5.5

10. 5.7

11. 6.0

12. 6.3

13. 6.4

14. 6.4

15. 6.4

16. 6.4

17. 6.5

18. 6.7

19. 6.8

20. 6.7

21. 6.7

22. 6.6

23. 6.6

24. 6.6

25. 6.7

26. 7.0

27. 7.4

28. 7.7

29. 7.8

30. 7.9

31. 7.9

[stewfox]

October 1888 was very unusual, it start of with record breaking minima with lying snow in places and ended with record breaking maxima.

2nd October: -4.9C (23.2F) at Stapleton (North Yorks.)

27th October : 20.3C (68.5F) at Old Street , London (The record maximum for that date until 2005)

A bit before my time

October 1985 I remember as being warm based on being a new student to Portsmouth Poly and walking around in tee shirts, which appeared to be for the whole month, any evidence to back that up?

[Weather-history]

From A. Rawson of Fallbarrow, Bowness, Windermere

"I am writing a line to say we have a heavy fall of snow this morning, after a lovely September. Everything is covered and it must be deep on the hills. Of course it is melting fast but we had ice and the thermometer at 30F this morning. I don't remember so much at so early a date since I kept a record."

From G. F. Pearson, Kington, Herefordshire

"This very unusual season has now presented us with another phenomenon. Last night (1st to 2nd) we had a heavy snow storm, commencing at 10pm, without wind, falling level as near as possible, four inches deep at 7am and I have recorded 0.31 inch, carefully melted and measure in the gauge. The storm has been succeeded by the most lovely bright sunshine this morning but now at 11am the snow is only partially melted."

[Weather-history]

Newspaper clippings from the time

The cold first week

                

        

 

Mild last few days

                 Oct 1888 Bath      Oct 1888 Coventry 

 

 

[snefnug]

It’s interesting to read about harvesting.  Most of the farmers round here have harvested by September, of course with heavy modern machinery.  Also implication is that this was an anomalous October and that previous/usual Octobers were warmer in some parts, or am I reading that wrong.  And presumably climatically the tail end or just out of LIA?

[damianslaw]

Fantastic archives. Snow so early unusual.

[LetItSnow!]

If not for the mild end a remarkably cold October would have ensued. A first week of October averaging 5.0 is ridiculously cold! A very cold year in general - cold winter, spring, exceptionally cool summer with snow in places (apparently...) and then this cold October. The warm end to October gave way to a very mild November though, and a rather mild December. Up until then, each month of 1888 was well below average. Sort of like the opposite of 2022. Certainly the final two months saved it from being one of the coldest years ever known. It almost rivals 1879, of course only taking place 9 years later! It makes one take the current climate for granted.

The anomaly for each month compared to the 1772-present day average.

JANUARY: -0.3 FEBRUARY: -2.3 MARCH: -1.5 APRIL: -1.9 MAY: -0.6 JUNE: -1.2 JULY: -2.3 AUGUST: -1.6 SEPTEMBER: -1.2 OCTOBER:  -2.0 NOVEMBER: +1.5 DECEMBER: +0.6

Part of a run of exceptionally cold years. 1885-1892 averaged a sorrowful 8.5degC. 1888 and 1892 were the coldest, averaging 8.2degC. 1893 would have come as a shock!

Masses of northern blocking during 1888 as a whole.

The opposite of 1888 would look somewhat like this.

3.8, 6.4, 7.1, 10.0, 11.9, 15.6, 18.3, 18.3, 14.6, 11.9, 3.7, 3.7