Sunniest October on record

LAST MONTH was the sunniest October ever recorded in Lerwick as Shetland enjoyed unusually good weather.

The Lerwick observatory recorded 136 hours of sunshine in October, beating the previous record of 109 hours set in 1939.

The region of northern Scotland, which includes the Highlands, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland, also set a new record with 111.6 hours of sunshine.

This was nearly double the average, which for the period between 1981 and 2010 was 67.6 hours. The last previous record was October 1939 with 102.1 hours.

A spokesman for the Met Office said a reduced amount of moisture coming in from the west resulted in less clouds forming.

“We had largely easterly winds coming in from Scandinavia for a lot of that time, and because we didn’t have the run of westerlies, which normally brings in a lot more moisture, there was less opportunity for clouds to develop,’ he said.

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The last month was also the fifth driest October northern Scotland has seen since records began in 1910, with only 61.4mm of rainfall.

In June, meanwhile, Lerwick was the second sunniest place in the entire UK.

It had 226.2 hours of sun during the month as a flow of clearer air from the arctic brought less cloud.