The UK and much of Europe experienced well above normal temperatures during the second month of the meteorological autumn, in what was a very warm month for the northern hemisphere as a whole.
Persistent low pressure in the Atlantic and higher pressure across central and southern Europe helped feed mild air from the south/south-west for prolonged periods in October.
France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia recorded their warmest ever October, and Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg experienced their joint warmest.
According to provisional figures from the Met Office, the UK had the seventh-warmest October, according to records dating to 1884. There was also a notable absence of overnight frost. The above-average temperatures in October came amid an extremely warm year for the UK, with 2022 on track to exceed 2014 as the warmest year ever recorded.
High temperatures have continued to affect parts of Europe during the first week of November. Dobliče in Slovenia reached 26.2C last Monday – the highest November temperature ever recorded in the country, exceeding the previous national monthly temperature record of 25.6C set in 2015.
Bosnia and Herzegovina also surpassed its November record on the same day, with 29.1C observed in Banja Luka, 1.5C higher than the previous record set in 1996. National temperature records continued to fall on 2 November, with 29.9C recorded at Gevgelija, North Macedonia.
While the heat has eased across western and central Europe in recent days, a return to above-normal temperatures is forecast across swaths of the continent this week, with temperatures 6-8C above the 1979-2010 climatological average. South and south-west France could reach the low to mid-20s celsius later this week.
Meanwhile, a stark temperature contrast has developed across South America. Central areas have experienced unusually low temperatures for early November, whereas parts of Chile and southern Argentina have recorded temperatures 5-10C above normal. On 2 November, dipping to 2C in Pozo Hondo. And in Brazil snow was reported on higher ground. Such weather is rare in the country so late in the spring and it is thought to be the first time snow has been recorded then in at least 100 years.
