Mild and bitter

THE first half of November was, both locally and nationally, very mild with little sunshine, the cloud cover keeping overnight temperatures well above average.

From the beginning of the third week, temperatures dropped. There were five frosts and a short but very white snow storm. If you overslept, you will have missed it as it did not settle!

Maximum temperatures ranged from 4C to 17.6C and minimum temperatures ranged from minus 4.4C to 13.5C and a mean for the month of 8.41C — one-and-a-half degrees above the 30-year average.

There were only six completely dry days, although the rain total of 67.4mm is less than the seasonal average of 74.2mm. But it seems to have been enough for Thames Water — so we can now use our hose-pipes. Now there’s good news for Christmas!

My thanks, as ever, to Denis Gilbert, from Shiplake, for the statistics.