October was a mucky month, its warmth belittled by the frequent rainfall and how wet it would finish - it is now the twelfth wettest of any month in my records and of the 16 Octobers now recorded, eleven have exceeded 100 mm (three over 200 mm).

  Unsettled was the constant theme of the month and only once did we have consecutive dry days. There were a number of very wet days spread throughout the month and whilst the first half of the month was just that bit wetter than the second half, rain fell on every day from the 19th. Needless to say that sunshine was at a premium, especially in the second half of the month.

  And it was terribly mild. The final third of the month was actually the warmest part of the month; it included the month's warmest day and had a number of very mild nights. Needless to say frost wasn't an issue - there wasn't any.

  The month started wet, the 4th and 6th especially, but after a less wet few days another wet spell 13-17th followed. The 18th was a token dry day, before that final wet and mild end to the month.

  The Jet Stream was in an active phase during the month and this brought a succession of low pressure (LP) systems to our shores and hence why rain fell on such a large number (26) of days.

  As a consequence it was an unsettled month, often wet, but mild. The 2nd was one of the rare decent days of the month and enjoyed some sunshine, but come the 4th and the first depression of the month arrived and both here at Maulds Meaburn (33.8 mm) and across much of the county (Ennerdale Black Sail 142.2 mm) it was the month's wettest day. Typically though, it was a mild day at 16.1°c.

  The rain from the 4th was heavy overnight into the 5th with another damp day following, before yet another soaking on the 6th (22.8 mm)(although the morning had seen some sunshine). After a wet start to the 7th it improved quite nicely and then the 8th was one of the few dry days. The period 9-20th saw slightly cooler day-time maximums which were just either side of average for the time of year, with ground frosts recorded 13-15th.

  After rain during the evening of the 9th, the 10-11th were both dry, the only time in the month to notch up successive dry days - but then at 11.7°c the 11th had the lowest maximum temperature of the month!

  The 12-17th would all see some rainfall with the 15-16th notching up another soaking. The 15th saw 24.8 mm and with some thunder and hail in the afternoon followed by a spell of very heavy rain 22-23h.

  To be fair to the 16th it was dry during the day and even had some sunshine either side of lunch, the rain only arriving at 22h, but which was heavy for a while. It was a small but vigorous area of LP that brought this rain and as it moved north along the west coast of Eire it brought a spell of strong winds on the 17th, gusting to 51 Mph - the maximum temperature was suppressed at 13.2°c, but which is still slightly above average.

  High pressure (HP) ridged in on the 18th to give the final dry day of the month and which also saw some sun - now through to the end of the month rain would be a constant companion.

  Areas of LP arrived courtesy of the Jet Stream and apart from the rainfall it became very mild both by day and night. The 20th was a fairly grim day with another 29.3 mm of rain and which at 12.1°c was the last of the cooler days.

  On some of the days (24th, 25th and 30th) the rain did at least have the decency to fall at night, but it was all a little dreary. With the LP systems arriving from the S-SSW, the air flow was a moist, but mild S'ly and this saw a month's high of 17.6°c on the 27th which followed by a very warm minimum of 12.9°c overnight into the 28th. Then the minimum temperature on the final three nights of the month remained high, at or just below 10°c.

  MSLP of 1010.4 Mb was -0.5 MB below the local average for the month and overall a mean minimum of 7.84°c and a mean maximum of 14.13°c saw the temperature 1.45°c above the thirteen year average for this site.

  It was the warmest October since 2013 and since the record began in 2009, one has been warmer and twelve have been colder - the highest maximum temperature recorded during the month being 17.6°c (27th), the lowest minimum 0.4°c (13th).

  Rainfall of 212.6 mm (Maulds Meaburn North 211.4 mm -- Castlehowe Scar 263.4 mm) was 170.8% of average for 2007-21, making it the wettest October since 2008. In a record that commenced in 2007, fourteen have been drier and one has been wetter.

  During the month the following 'days of' were recorded: thunder on one day, hail also on one - the wind speed averaged 8.19 mph, with a maximum gust of 51 mph (17th).

  We had 0 Air Frost in the month (year 33)          --          Grass Frosts totalled 4 (year 88).

  The 1 foot soil temp ranged from a low of 10.5°c on the 19th        to      a high of 13.2°c on the 5th     --      with a monthly mean of 11.7°c

  The 1 meter soil temp ranged from a low of 11.7°c on the 24-25th      to      a high of 13.2°c on the 1st     --     with a monthly mean of 12.3°c

   This makes the Jan' to Oct' period of 2022 0.94°c warmer than the average for 2009-21 and with 91.7% of average rainfall for 2008-21

  At the Met' Office site at Shap a mean minimum of 7.4°c and a mean maximum of 13.3°c saw the monthly mean temperature 1.8°c above average. It was the warmest October since 2017. In a record back to 1992, seven have been warmer and 23 colder.

  Rainfall of 300.0 mm represents 162.2% of its average. It was the driest October since 2020 and in a record that commenced in 1989, 28 have been drier and five have been wetter.

  At Appleby in Westmorland rainfall of 158.2 mm represents 173.8% of its average (1856-2021) and made it the wettest since 2000 - in a record that commenced in 1856, 156 have been drier, nine have been wetter and one was the same.

  Whilst it was a very wet month across the county, the percentage falls did vary quite markedly, between 100 and 206% - and with no geographical pattern to those final totals.

  It was more a case of an alphabetical pattern to find the driest parts of the county, Abbeytown in the NW of the county the driest with just 100% of its LTA, closely followed by Aisgill in the SW with 107.5% (albeit it must be said that for both sites this isn’t well represented on the Met’O map below.)

  Walney (113.9%) and Palace Nook in Barrow (170.8%) being a good example of how proximity doesn’t always equate to uniformity.

  The greatest percentage falls saw two sites, Blencathra (206.5%) and Haresceugh (203.6%) top the 200% mark, but more broadly totals finished in the region of 150% of the LTA.

  Rainfall was a constant throughout the month with a large number of very wet days, especially in the LDNP where an inch of rain in a 24Hr period was recorded as many as seven times (Seathwaite).

  Of the five days to record an inch of rain at Ennerdale Black Sail, everyone then went on to top 2” and indeed it was here once again were the month’s wettest day was recorded, 142.2 mm on the 4th **.

  Honister was the only other location to top the 100mm mark in a 24Hr period, also on the 4th and which led to a number of flood alerts being issued in the west of the county on the 5th.

  **because we like curiosities – at Wastwater on the 4th only 37.2 mm of rain was recorded -- the distance between here and Black Sail is 2.3 miles – but the difference in rainfall that day was over 100mm!! -- the effect of the mountains (Kirk Fell and Pillar) forcing the saturated air-mass to rise.

  Figures from the Environment Agency’s rainfall sites were, (figure in brackets being the monthly average for 1991-2020)   ‘Data kindly provided by the Hydrometry and Telemetry team of the Environment Agency (Penrith)’:

  Kirkby Thore 130.4 mm -- (80.6 mm)

  Haresceugh Castle (Kirkoswald) 205.05 mm -- (100.7 mm)

  Brothers Water 382.34 mm -- (290.4 mm)

  Orton (Shallowford) ??? mm -- (164.5 mm [average for 1967-2021]) - making it the dri/wettest since ??? and since 1967 when the record commenced, ?? have been drier and ?? have been wetter.

  Seathwaite Farm (Borrowdale) 525.4 mm -- (353.8 mm [average for 1845-2021]) - making it the driest since 2020 and since 1845 when the record commenced, 150 have been drier and 27 have been wetter.