October 2005 - warm yet very wet!
The second week of October 2005 saw an extremely wet couple of days across western parts of the UK and Ireland, as some exceptionally heavy and prolonged falls of rain occurred across the North and West of the British Isles. The equivalent of a months worth of rain fell in just 48 hours in some areas,causing some significant flooding especially in SW Wales and across the Border region in Scotland. Earlier though to the east across England it was unseasonably warm, especially at night.
During the 10th to 12th October 2005 a trough lay to the west of the UK, moving slowly SE and eventually stalling. A large blocking anticyclone extended its influence across much of Northern Europe inhibiting the movement of the trough. At the surface, a depression of around 970mb's was moving towards the NW of Scotland with a trailing cold front that extended SW right down to the Azores. By the 11th, the cold front had moved SE through Ireland introducing much fresher air behind. To the east of the front though, a warm southerly flow covered much of England and Wales, but another wave was developing on the front just south of Wales.
Much of Eastern England, helped by clear skies saw very respectable temperatures for the first half of October with as high as 23.6C recorded on the 10th at Herne Bay, Kent and 23.4C in Cambridge. Some extremely high minima (several degrees above the average maximum values expected for the time of year!) were also reported across some parts of the Southeast overnight on the 11th/12th. The figure at Southwark was 18.8C , and though unofficial, is the highest minima on record for October, and that recorded at the old London Weather Center of 18.2C was just 0.1C below the all-time October highest minima record there.
Further east along the frontal zone, an area of organised rain developed during the afternoon, as a surface low developing west of Brest, deepened and moved slowly north towards SW Wales. The heaviest of the rain fell during the late afternoon in Pembrokeshire providing some impressively high totals and some severe flooding. After several hours of heavy rain and totals for the afternoon approaching 100mm+ locally, flooding badly affected the county of Pembrokeshire in Wales. Milford Haven reported a very high 140mm in a 24 hour period. In Haverfordwest part of the town centre was flooded to a depth of over 1.5 feet, the local school was also closed as a result and many homes in Newport and Dina Cross were affected by flooding. Many of the minor roads became impassable during the afternoon, due to the shear amount of flood water around Maenclochog, Llys Y Fran and Llandissilio.
In addition, after being badly flooded in January 2005, Carlisle was once again affected. This occurred as the heavy rainfall over Wales moved slowly NE during the evening and overnight. Totals here again were approaching 100mm in Carlisle itself in just 12 hours, leading to some initial flooding in the surrounding area (Bridgefoot was the worst affected area with half the homes there flooded).
The heavy rain also caused considerable flooding across parts of Scotland. The River Teviot in the Borders region became swollen after almost 24 hours of continuous rainfall. Hawick, which lies on the river, and much of the Teviot valley, was badly flooded as a result. Some of the town was almost 4ft underwater leaving 15 homes swamped, and several cars floating down the high street at one stage. The dangerous floodwaters across parts of Scotland left rescue crews taking part in rescue efforts stranded in Selkirk. A number of landslides occurred also in Dumfries and Galloway, causing the closure of the A708. The torrential rainfall also caused a loss of life when a 76-year-old lorry driver’s vehicle overturned in the spray on the A68 near Ancrum. Train services were also badly disrupted during the day with many services on the Virgin operator were cancelled due to the bad weather.
Even on the 12th the front continued to make very slow progress SE, and during the day, some thunderstorms developed along the front and brought some localised flash flooding and even a T2/T3 tornado to the Moseley district of Birmingham. Fortunately there were no fatalities and the damage to properties was fairly limited but the total of 71mm from Birmingham is quite representative of the locally torrential downpours that occurred during the late afternoon and early evening period across this region.
The period was a good example of how a mid autumnal combination of warmth, slow moving frontal systems and still relatively high sea surface temperatures can combine to give some quite severe weathers whilst giving a classic 'indian summer' feel for the luckier ones.
