IT may not quite have been the Indian summer many Islanders were hoping for, but Jersey saw one of the sunniest Octobers on record last month, with higher temperatures and less rainfall than average.
Figures released by Jersey Met show that a total of 168.5 hours of sunshine were recorded across the month, compared with the 30-year average of 133.9 hours. This made it the tenth sunniest October since records began in 1925, behind the record mark of 191.8, set in 2018.
The Jersey Met data signalled a significant change in the weather after a September that was cooler, wetter and duller than average. October’s overall temperature of 14.4°C was 0.7°C above the average for 1991 to 2020, while the 87.3 millimetres of rain that fell was 18% below the average figure of 106.5mm.
The wettest day of the month was Saturday 5 October, with 14mm measured in a 24-hour period, while the highest temperature came on 8 October, when a high of 18.8°C was recorded.
If last month seemed unremarkable to some observers, this may have been because the end-of-month data was less striking than in the equivalent bulletin 12 months earlier. October 2023 was the Island’s fourth warmest on record, with an overall temperature of 15.6°C being way above the average of 13.7°C, while it was also a particularly sunny month – with a total of 184.2 hours.
