Like those other months on the cusp between seasons, December, March and June, September’s weather can be fickle and unpredictable.
September 2014 was a vintage month, dominated by a long spell of high pressure bringing clear skies, sunshine and very little rain. It was one of the warmest Septembers on record – in the top five of the past century – though not quite as warm as 2006.
More surprisingly perhaps, average temperatures were roughly the same as those of the previous month, only the fifth time that September has been as warm as August. It was also the driest September since 1910, when records began for the UK as a whole, and the driest month at all for almost two decades.
Weather folklore suggests that our ancestors tended to prefer a warm and dry September that, last year notwithstanding, is perhaps the triumph of hope over experience.
September sees the harvest season coming to an end, so dry weather is generally preferred to wet, and calm to windy. However, as the Victorian folklore collector Richard Inwards points out, “September rain is good for crops and vines”.
September often sees the first of another autumn weather phenomenon – namely storms and gales.
In early September 1983, a deep area of low pressure swept towards Cornwall from the Atlantic, bringing strong westerly winds and heavy rain, while last year, the remnants of tropical storm Edouard also brought winds and wet weather to southwest England.
