There may well be a lack of sunshine over the coming days in the east but within the context of whether or not this month ends up being sunnier than average here, I don't think that this will actually matter in this part of the world. As I write (at the end of yet another sunny day), we now need just another 13.7 hours of sunshine between now and the end of this month in order for this month to end up being sunnier than average overall at Edinburgh Gogarbank.

With today being such a sunny day, some of that is likely to occur within the next hour which should then leave us needing a little bit under 13 hours of sunshine in order for us to get that sunnier than average month and there are still another 11 days left of this month for us to get that required total. This means that even if we do have a dull period coming up over the coming week, I don't think that we will have too much problems with getting that required total in the end and to me, it is whether a month as a whole ends up being sunnier than average overall which matters rather than the fact that a specific period within that month is going to be dull (which is usually going to be the case in any given month anyway).

Once this month goes down as being sunnier than average overall, this will then mean that the autumn as a whole will go down as being sunnier than average so in this part of the world anyway, we can't really have any complaints in that regard.

What I do have a complaint about though, is the lack of official air frosts during this month at any of my three local stations, especially since we actually did quite well on that front during October due to the cold snap which we got at the end of that month. This is supposed to be a rapidly cooling time of the year as we head towards the start of the meteorological winter which is now less than two weeks ago, so the fact that we had those frosts during October and then have had nothing at all on that front so far during this month is just ridiculous. Looking further ahead, I'm not really holding out much hope for that and with the start of the actual winter coming up, that does not look like a very good omen for that to me.

Because of that, I still wouldn't be surprised if have actually already "had" our winter with that coming in the shape of that cold snap which we got at the end of October.

EDIT:

As a result of some missing data for the botanic gardens in Edinburgh coming through over the last wee while, I can now confirm that an official air frost was recorded there during this morning at around 8am. However, this still doesn't take anything away from the fact that this is the only occasion so far during this month as I write, that an official air frost has been recorded at any of my three local stations.