View from the Rear Window - October 2022 ~ Crafty Cabbage

According to the Met Office, October 2022 in the United Kingdom was mild with interludes of rain and the seventh warmest October in the UK meteorological record going back to 1884. The first ten months of 2022 (January - October, inclusive) was the warmest ever in the UK. Here in Herefordshire, the weather has been pleasantly warm, especially during the day. Autumn colour seems a little more advanced than last year but not greatly so - check out the red acer in the middle of the photos.

Rear Garden - October 3rd 2022

The warm wet weather has extended the growing season - so much so that cucumbers and tomatoes were still being harvested at the end of the month. We both caught COVID at the end of September and it took a full two weeks to clear. It has certainly slowed Mary down so there are still plenty of jobs to do in the garden ...

Mary in the Garden - October 20th 2022

The acer looks glorious at this time of the year and there is still plenty of colour from fuschias and salvias ...

Rear Garden - October 31st 2022

Jobs in the Kitchen Garden

Harvesting butternut squash, courgette, sweetcorn, tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, aubergines, bell peppers, chilli peppers, celery, potatoes
Sow green manure on the vacant sweetcorn patch
Start clearing and cleaning the polytunnel
Weeding, shredding, composting

October 2022 Weather

A summary of October's weather parameters is collated in the table below.

October 2022
Weather Parameter	Value	Dates
Average Monthly Temperature	13 oC
Maximum Monthly Temperature	20 oC	1st, 2nd, 6th, 14th
Minimum Monthly Temperature	1 oC	11th
Number of Air Frost Days	0
Number of Hot Days (> 25 oC)	0
Monthly Precipitation	62.8 mm
Greatest 24 h Precipitation	13.0 mm	22nd - 23rd
Number of Dry Days	9
Monthly Sunshine Hours (estimated)	86
Average Wind Speed	3 km/h
Highest Wind Speed	47 km/h	5th
Maximum Barometric Pressure (Sea Level)	1028.8 hPa	18th
Minimum Barometric Pressure (Sea Level)	993.6 hPa	23rd
Average Barometric Pressure (Sea Level)	1012.5 hPa

Daily minimum and maximum temperatures are presented in the following bargraph [click for larger image]. Daily maximums did not drop below 16 ℃ while overnight temperatures only dropped below 5 ℃ on three occasions. and there were no frosts.

Daily rainfall and sunshine hours (using solar radiation as a proxy) are shown below. The first 2 - 3 weeks of the month were largely sunny with occasional showers. In contrast, the last 1 - 2 weeks were cloudy with some rain every day.

Temperature data for the past three October months are shown below. Our nearest Met Office weather station is at Credenhill (about 3 miles as the crow flies). For the 1991 to 2020 period, the average daily temperature at Credenhill - (mean maxT + mean minT)/2 - was 10.75 ℃. Thus, while October 2020 was 'normal', both 2021 and 2022 were well above average in mean daily temperatures ...

Rainfall has been highly variable over the past three Octobers (see bargraph below) but this October has, undeniably, been drier and sunnier than 2020 or 2021 ...

Finally, a few garden photos ...