‘Near normal’ September follows record-breaking hot summer

The UK’s record-breaking hot summer was followed by a return to more typical weather in September, the Met Office has said.

Provisional figures show last month’s mean temperature across the country was 12.4C – safely below the all-time record for September of 15.2C, set in 2006.

The average maximum temperature last month is estimated to have been 16.3C.

This was also well below the 2006 record of 19.2C.

Despite September seeing the first two named storms of the 2018/19 season, Ali and Bronagh, temperatures for the month were described by the Met Office as “near normal” and conditions as “fairly average”.

Storm Ali brought gusts of up to 91mph to Northern Ireland, Scotland, northern England and parts of north Wales.

It was followed a few days later by Storm Bronagh, which saw gusts of up to 78mph in parts of England and Wales.

Yet rainfall across the UK for the whole month was only slightly above the long-term average, at 103.6mm.

In Katesbridge in Northern Ireland, a minimum temperature of minus 3.6C was measured on the morning of September 29 – a new regional record for the month.

The previous record was minus 3.2C, which had been set at Magherally on the morning of September 30 1991.

The Met Office has provisionally declared the summer of 2018 (June, July and August) to be the joint warmest on record, along with 2006, 2003 and 1976.