Will warm and dry start to autumn continue into October?

High pressure continues to dominate this weekend, bringing more sunny, dry weather but also continuing the chilly nights.
Autumn sunshineAutumn sunshine
Autumn sunshine

The outlook for the beginning of October is for more fine, settled weather before a transition towards more changeable weather next week with some rain.

A dry, sunny but cool September

Provisional Met Office statistics for the month show that September was drier than average for much of the UK with figures up to September 28 showing that there has been 53.3mm of rain, only 55% of the September average of 96.4mm.

Northern and western Scotland have been particularly dry with only 37% and 31% of the September average for rainfall having been recorded.

In comparison, parts of eastern and southeast England have seen above average rainfall. Wales has seen 75mm of rain, 64% of average.

While Northern Ireland recorded 51% of the September average for rainfall with a total of 47.1mm.

Many places have enjoyed a sunny month with 137 hours of sunshine recorded across the UK, this is 10% above the average for September.

However, despite the dry and sunny weather conditions, September has seen some rather cool days and nights. Mean temperatures across the UK up until the 28 September are 0.8C below normal with minimum temperatures across England and Wales around 1.5C below the September average. Five UK observing sites have already recorded their first frost of the season.

Check the latest Met Office forecast.