57.9 mm To Date. 

57.2mm month to date.

58.2 mm To Date. 

43.8mm.

A total of just 0.2 mm of rain fell during yesterday at Edinburgh Gogarbank thanks to a few showers during yesterday evening, along with just 0.2 mm at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh.

This in turn means that the total for this month so far remains stuck on 23 mm at Edinburgh Gogarbank and just 19.6 mm at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh, thus making this month probably one of the driest Octobers which I can remember (it is this month after all, which has the highest 1981-2010 average rainfall during the entire year) but what is even more incredible is the fact that this has been an ongoing pattern since the middle of April and this means that once this month is out of the way, we will still not have had a single month since April which has had above average rainfall.

Looking back on how this month has fared so far, there still hasn't been a single day since 13 October 2018 with more than 0.2 mm of rain being recorded for that day at Edinburgh Gogarbank. Today will therefore be the 16th day in a row where this has been the case if that situation doesn't change by the end of today. Within that as well, there has only been two days which have even had that total of 0.2 mm of rain. The situation at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh isn't much better. There was one day within the last 16 days where 0.4 mm of rain was recorded there but apart from that, everything is the same there as what it is at Edinburgh Gogarbank.

I have talked about an official absolute drought on many occasions on this forum and on that note, I have found this article from Wikipedia where the official definition of an absolute drought in the UK is given. What that article says is that an official absolute drought in the UK occurs if 15 or more days in a row occur where the rainfall total for that day is less than 0.2 mm. I get my rainfall data from weathercast.co.uk or occasionally from SEPA if I am unable to get that data from weathercast.co.uk. On both of those sites, the rainfall data for each hour is only ever given in multiples of 0.2 mm. This means that there hasn't been a single day since 13 October which has had more than the minimum possible amount of rainfall for that day at Edinburgh Gogarbank whilst there has been just one day within that period with more than the minimum possible amount of rainfall at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh.

According to the official definition which I have found, the fact that rainfall totals are only given in multiples of 0.2 mm means that there needs to be no recorded rainfall at all for a period of 15 days or more in order for there to be an official absolute drought since the rainfall totals on every single day needs to be less than that in order for such a drought to occur. During this period, there has been many days where we have had light drizzle which has dampened the ground a bit but not been enough for there to be any any actual recorded rainfall on that day. On those days, this light drizzle hasn't been enough to prevent there from being a drought. However, it turns out that the fact that there has been those three days where 0.2 mm of rain has been recorded at Edinburgh Gogarbank means that there is actually no official absolute drought just now according to the latest official definition for that.

However, I will stress here that this is only according to the latest official definition for that because it also turns out that it was only during the 1990s that this latest official definition came into force because before then, it used to be the case that an official absolute drought would be defined as a period of 15 days or more with less than 0.25 mm of rain which means that under that previous definition, a day with just 0.2 mm of rain would not have been enough to avert an official absolute drought since that is less than 0.25 mm. This in turn means that if we still went by that previous definition today, we would have been in an official absolute drought at Edinburgh Gogarbank just now.

This also shows just how dry it has been here recently and although I will no doubt get the usual stick on this forum from certain members for saying this, this surely has to mean that we could really do with getting some serious rainfall in this area just now.

28.7mm to date

We could get some more tomorrow from the low pressure moving up the North Sea.

In the end, a total of 0.2 mm of rain fell at Edinburgh Gogarbank during yesterday along with 0.2 mm at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh.

In addition to that, a total of 1.0 mm of rain has fallen during today so far at Edinburgh Gogarbank as at 8am this morning, along with 1.0 mm at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh.

For Edinburgh Gogarbank, that takes this month's total so far to 24.2 mm, the total for this autumn so far to 82.2 mm and the total for this year so far to 502.6 mm as at 8am this morning.

For the botanic gardens in Edinburgh, that takes this month's total so far to 20.8 mm, the total for this autumn so far to 70.2 mm and the total for this year so far to 494.6 mm as at 8am this morning.

With just one more day of this month to go after today, there is clearly no way that this month is going to go down as being anything other than a substantially drier than average month in terms of both the actual rainfall amounts and the number of official rain days. However, it is nice to now be seeing a little bit of rain at the end of this month even though this still isn't very much, as this is one aspect of our weather which I have been missing quite a lot recently.

49.2mm.

In addition to that, a total of 0.6 mm of rain has fallen during today so far at Edinburgh Gogarbank as at 8am this morning, along with 0.4 mm at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh.

For Edinburgh Gogarbank, that takes this month's total so far to 25.4 mm, the total for this autumn so far to 83.4 mm and the total for this year so far to 503.8 mm as at 8am this morning.

For the botanic gardens in Edinburgh, that takes this month's total so far to 21.6 mm, the total for this autumn so far to 71.0 mm and the total for this year so far to 495.4 mm as at 8am this morning.

As I mentioned yesterday on this thread, this month is clearly going to go down as being substantially drier than average at both of those stations, but it is still raining here at the moment and this means that the above totals which I have given for today and for this month, are unlikely to the final totals for today and this month respectively.

End of the month total stays at   58.2 mm. 

A Change to 58.5 mm ....

Now that we have just entered another new month, I can now confirm that my final total for October comes out as 26.0 mm at Edinburgh Gogarbank and 22.4 mm at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh after a total of 1.2 mm of rain had fallen during yesterday at Edinburgh Gogarbank along with 1.2 mm at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh.

This means that Edinburgh Gogarbank had only 30.8% of the 1981-2010 average for that station whilst the botanic gardens in Edinburgh had just 29.6% of its 1981-2010 average rainfall during September.

Overall, this shows that in terms of the actual rainfall amounts, October was substantially drier than average at both of those stations.

In addition to that, Edinburgh Gogarbank had 9 official rain days during October and this shows that it was a much drier than average month there in terms of the number of official rain days since that amounts to just 70.3% of the 1981-2010 average. It is a similar story at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh which had 5 official rain days with that amounting to only 40.3% of the 1981-2010 average.

Meanwhile, I can now confirm that the total for this autumn so far is 84.0 mm at Edinburgh Gogarbank and 71.8 mm at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh.

For Edinburgh Gogarbank, this is 38.9% of the 1981-2010 average whilst the botanic gardens in Edinburgh has had 35.7% of its 1981-2010 average during this autumn so far.

In addition to that, Edinburgh Gogarbank has had 23 official rain days during this autumn so far which is 63.5% of the 1981-2010 average whereas the botanic gardens in Edinburgh has had 17 official rain days during this autumn so far which is 50.3% of the 1981-2010 average.

Over the year so far, Edinburgh Gogarbank has had 504.4 mm of rain which is 66.9% of the 1981-2010 averages whilst the botanic gardens in Edinburgh has had a total of 496.2 mm of rain during this year so far which is 70.5% of the 1981-2010 average.

In addition to that, Edinburgh Gogarbank has had 98 official rain days during this year so far which is 71.4% of the 1981-2010 average whereas the botanic gardens in Edinburgh has had 99 official rain days during this year so far which is 79.7% of the 1981-2010 average.

Final total is 56mm .. 74% of the local average.

Final total 62.4mm.

October total has come out at 25.9mm here in west Kent.

Very comparable to johncs in Edinburgh - pretty dry.  Regrettably I don't have an average figure to compare that with.

One thing which I forgot to add in my report as well, is that October was actually the second driest month of this year so far at both Edinburgh Gogarbank and the botanic gardens in Edinburgh with only May being drier than that, and despite the fact that October is actually the wettest month of the year on average at both of those stations according to the 1981-2010 averages (this then makes it even more difficult to actually get a wetter than average October due to that average being set at a higher value) which I got from the Met Office website.

That Met Office website is quite handy for finding those averages and if there are no averages given for your station (as is the case with Edinburgh Airport), I'm sure that you will be able to find a nearby major station there which would then allow you to use its averages for your reports.

October has been a slightly dry month here, a final total of 44mm, (80% of average).