After both the 1st and 2nd had seen temperatures in excess of 10°c the rest of November was consistently cold with just one more day scraping into double figures. During this time we had some quite harsh frosts and temperatures well below average, both by night and day. Newton Rigg even recorded an 'Ice Day' as early as the 18th and here at Maulds Meaburn we equalled the lowest temperature recorded in November.

  Despite the coldness of the month there was no wintry weather with snow remaining absent. Low pressure was dominant throughout but quite astonishingly winds from a SW'ly quarter were totally absent. The month was anomalously an ESE'ly one, but winds either from the NW or indeed just calm, were almost as frequent.

  After a mild and damp start to the month it became progressively colder from the 6th whilst remaining unsettled. It was significantly cold during the 18-19th as high pressure sat over the UK, before a week of dull, damp and slightly milder weather (more so by night). The month then finished with two gloriously sunny but very cold days. Despite being a drier than average month it still became the sixth successive month to attain 100 mm of rain.

  MSLP of 1002.2 Mb was -8.6 Mb below the local average for the month and overall a mean minimum of 1.77°c and a mean maximum of 7.26°c saw the temperature 1.39°c below the ten year average for this site.

  It was the coldest since 2016 and of the eleven now recorded, three have been colder and seven have been warmer. The highest maximum temperature recorded was 12.4°c (1st), the lowest minimum -6.2°c (19th), the latter equalling the lowest November temperature recorded here.

  Rainfall of 100.5 mm (Crosby Ravensworth School 103.4 mm - Castlehowe Scar 111.1 mm - Reagill 70.4 mm) was 75.2% of average for 2007-18 and made it the driest November since 2016 - of the 13 now recorded seven have been wetter and five have been drier.

  During the month there was: fog on one day (27th) and the maximum gust of wind was 40 mph on the 7th.

  At the Met' Office site at Newton Rigg, rainfall of 64.4 mm (64.3%) was the driest since 2013 and in a series back to 1900 November has been wetter in 82 years and drier in 36 with one year having exactly the same total.

  A mean temperature of 4.48°c is 1.4°c below average for the month and in a record back to 1951 (one year missing) November has been warmer in 56 years and colder in 11.

  Locally, rainfall percentages were well below average and typically in the range of 60-75% of normal. Seathwaite was down as low as 56.4% of its average (the driest November since 1995 and the 40th driest in its record back to 1845), with only the far eastern part of the county approaching anywhere near the average fall.

  Figures from the Environment Agency’s rainfall sites were, (figure in brackets being the monthly average for 1961-90)   ‘Data kindly provided by the Hydrometry and Telemetry team of the Environment Agency (Penrith)’:

  Kirkby Thore 59.6 mm (80.9 mm)

  Haresceugh Castle (Kirkoswald) 106.78 mm (91.9 mm)

  Brothers Water 185.85 mm (271 mm) and

  Orton (Shallowford) 113.6 mm (180.1 mm [average for 1967-2018])

  210.8 mm at Seathwaite Farm (Borrowdale - 374 mm [average for 1981-2010]).

    AUTUMN

  Slightly drier and much colder than average.

  Autumn has not provided any extremes in our weather, but all three months have been colder than their respective averages, especially the final two months which were both well in excess of 1°c below average. This has seen autumn 2019 record the most air frosts (17) in my eleven years of records and there were certainly some cold nights during November which saw its lowest temperature record of -6.2°c equalled. September only saw two days attain 20°c and for the first time October's a highest temperature was below 15°c - however, despite the coldness of the season we did not experience any wintry conditions.

  Despite all three months notching up at least 100 mm of rain, the season was marginally drier than average. Rainfall was frequent but not especially heavy, the wettest period coming during the last ten days of September and through to the 10th October - those twenty days accounting for just over half (51.3%) of the entire fall for the season.

   Maulds Meaburn recorded 329.8 mm of rain (98.1% of average) (Crosby Ravensworth 348.7 mm) which makes it the driest since 2016 and of the thirteen now recorded five have been drier and seven have been wetter.

   A mean temperature of 8.35°c is the coldest since 2012 and is 1.01°c colder than average. Of the eleven now recorded one has been colder and nine have been warmer.

   At Newton Rigg rainfall totalled 280.8 mm and had a mean temperature of 8.41°c. In comparison to the 1981-2010 averages this represented 99.1% of autumn rainfall and it was 0.7°c colder than average.

   This makes the autumn of 2019 the 49th wettest in a series back to 1900 (3 yrs of missing data) and with 12 having been colder, 54 warmer and one with the same mean temperature in a series back to 1951 (1 year of missing data).

  General Synoptic Report for the Month

   With few exceptions, low pressure (LP) was the dominant feature throughout the month, being constantly ever present, either over or close to the UK. At times we sat within a slacker pressure gradient (or a col) when the weather would be fairly quiet, but LP was the main driver to our weather and therefore rain was fairly frequent, although not especially heavy.

  However, it was also quite cool with winds from a N-NW'ly direction and this also gave a reasonable number of air frosts, especially in the first half of the month and with a run of low day-time temperatures. HP at the month's end brought a couple of fine, sunny days, but also a return of sharp night-time frosts.

  However, the north of the UK including Cumbria were fortunate that the heaviest bands of rain during that first half of the month remained over the Midlands and we effectively escaped the worst of things.

  The month opened with a deep LP system close to Eire that deepened as it passed over southern Eire, which gave a wet day (13.0 mm) on the 1st, but the 2nd would be the first of several days when Cumbria avoided the worst of the conditions as the rain remained in the south of England. Both the 1st and 2nd would comfortably top 10°c, but now the temperatures would fall away.

  The LP broadened out on the 3rd, becoming slack over the next few days. An occluded front still brought a miserable day for the 3rd though, but now rainfall totals would be fairly nominal through to the 9th. In the slacker pressure gradient and with relatively calm, northerly, winds, the temperatures became quite chilly. The 6th saw the first air frost of the month and the 9th at just 4.6°c became the first day of the season to remain below 5.0°c.

  The 9-14th saw frosts on all but one night with Cumbria still tending to sit within a slack area or close to the centre of any LP system. The 10th saw a wet end to the day as a new area of LP quickly built to the west of Scotland and pushed its occluded front across the UK. Whilst the rain (18.4 mm) fell overnight into the 11th, the rest of the 11th would see frequent showers.

  A LP system that arrived during the 14th then remained over or close to the UK for the next few days and finally brought us a spell of rain (12.2 mm) overnight into the 17th. The rest of the day would steadily improve as HP in the Atlantic slowly nudged east and now the next few days in calm, but nominally N'ly winds would become distinctly cold.

  How cold a day you experienced on the 18th solely depended on whether you stayed clear of any fog/mist. Overnight temperatures had dropped to -3.9°c and we managed to hang on the clear skies through into the afternoon before the fog descended. This did allow the temperature to rise to a high of 0.6°c, but this was not the case at Newton Rigg which remained below freezing all day, recording a maximum of just -0.1°c.

  Overnight into the 19th the temperature fell away quickly, down to a low of -6.2°c (20.8°f).

  There then followed a slight warming, but with much duller conditions through to the 28th as LP once again became dominant. From then 20th through to the 27th 100% cloud cover was recorded every day at the morning observations and the days remained overcast with spells of rain or drizzle. However, apart from the 27th (13.8 mm) rainfall totals were nothing out of the ordinary.

  The final two days of the month saw quite glorious conditions as HP near Iceland ridged down strongly. Suddenly the gloom had disappeared and we were left with clear blue, cloudless skies. Consequently the days were also on the chilly side and both nights recorded frosts, down to -5.2°c on the 30th.