October 1888 was very unusual, it started off with record breaking minima with lying snow in places and ended with record breaking maxima.

2nd October: -4.9C (23.2F) at Stapleton (North Yorks.)

27th October : 20.3C (68.5F) at Old Street , London (The record maximum for that date until 2005)

Here are some reports from this October

1st: Otterburn-in Craven: Snow from 9 to 12 o'clock; Thixendale: Fall of snow; Shap: Heavy fall of snow; Llanwrtyd Wells: Snow at night; Llanidloes: About 4 inches of snow fell at night

2nd: Snow 2 inches deep on the hills

3rd: Rochester: Ice, 0.25" thick, a most unusual occurrence; Berkampstead: The havoc made in the garden by this frost was extraordinary, a large walnut tree had every leaf destroyed and every walnut on it frozen through; Thixendale: Ice 0.5" thick

4th: Drumnadroicht: Snow on low ground

Littlehampton: The sharpest frosts ever registered in October occurred at the beginning of the month, but vegetation recovered wonderfully, heliotrope, mignonette, pomegranate and myrtle being in full bloom.

Oxford: A ridiculous month beginning with snow and frost and ending with a temp. of 67F on 27th.

Hitchen: On the 27th, the max temp was 68.0F, snow on the 2nd

Addington: Perhaps one of the most remarkable Octobers on record for number of frosty nights (17). The min. temps were exceptionally low for the first three weeks, and as remarkably high during the remainder of the month.

Woolstaston: Snow on the 1st

Orleton: Snow covered the land two inches deep. At 9am on the 24th, the shade temp was 33F and at 9am on the 25th, it was 56F

Manchester: October began with a wintry aspect  and there were several frosty nights and some slight falls of snow

Cargen: Mean temp of first week: 40.7F, mean temp of the last week: 52.7F Snow on the 1st and 4th

Oban: Snow on the hills on the 1st that lasted to the 7th

1-7th October: 5.0C   25th-31st October: 12.4C

CET trackometer

1. 6.1
2. 5.1
3. 5.2
4. 5.3
5. 5.2
6. 5.0
7. 5.0
8. 5.2
9. 5.5
10. 5.7
11. 6.0
12. 6.3 
13. 6.4
14. 6.4
15. 6.4
16. 6.4
17. 6.5
18. 6.7
19. 6.8
20. 6.7
21. 6.7
22. 6.6
23. 6.6
24. 6.6
25. 6.7
26. 7.0
27. 7.4
28. 7.7
29. 7.8
30. 7.9
31. 7.9

From A. Rawson of Fallbarrow, Bowness, Windermere

"I am writing a line to say we have a heavy fall of snow this morning, after a lovely September. Everything is covered and it must be deep on the hills. Of course it is melting fast but we had ice and the thermometer at 30F this morning. I don't remember so much at so early a date since I kept a record."

From G. F. Pearson, Kington, Herefordshire

"This very unusual season has now presented us with another phenomenon. Last night (1st to 2nd) we had a heavy snow storm, commencing at 10pm, without wind, falling level as near as possible, four inches deep at 7am and I have recorded 0.31 inch, carefully melted and measure in the gauge. The storm has been succeeded by the most lovely bright sunshine this morning but now at 11am the snow is only partially melted."

27th October 1888 maxima

21.1C Boston, Stroud

20.4C Camden Square

20.0C Hitchin, Leicester

Waringstown reported a maximum of 21.1C on the 28th

Stratfield Turgiss: the end of the month was warm and close

Hitchin: on the 27th, the mean was 17.2C

Langton Herring: 24th to 28th was unusually warm

Woolstaston: very warm for last week

Cargen: mean temp of first week was 4.8C, last week was 11.5C

Dublin: the last seven days were remarkably warm

Edenfel: mean temp of 27th was 15.8C 

Amazing - the end of the first week the CET was just 5.0C. Makes you wonder what Octobber 1740 was like with a CET of just 5.3C and that was for the whole month.

I just can`t imagine an October with a cet colder than a lot of Januaries. In this day and age I can`t see the uk breaking any of the coldest cet records but we seem to be breaking or coming very close to topping the cet monthly highs.

A great read Kev; keep 'em coming.

With a CET of 7.9 the few warm days at the end didn't lift the temperature much; of interest, I think, is the fact that during the 8 years either side of 1888, there were 7 colder Octobers- all of which appear in the coldest 23 Octobers!  A funny period in the October series.