In the UK, autumn is considered the transition season between summer and winter. Average temperatures gradually fall and the daylight hours become increasingly shorter.
According the meteorological calendar, autumn begins in September and ends in November, the autumnal season officially beginning on the autumn equinox, this occurs around the 22nd of September. The UK can receive extremely unsettled weather during the autumnal months one day can feel like an Indian summer and the next could be frost on the ground. However, towards the latter part of the season temperatures continue to drop as autumn slowly transitions to the winter months., with autumn officially ending this year on the 21st of December.
In the UK the average temperatures during the autumn months range from 16 to 9 degrees in September, 13 to 6 degrees in October, and 9 to 3 degrees in November. However autumn 2023 was warmer and wetter than the average recorded and also experienced dramatic contrasts in the weather. Having our warmest September on record reaching temperatures over 30 degrees, our 6th wettest October since 1836, ending with a wet and cold November.
One of the most obvious signs that the seasons are changing are found amongst nature, the shorter days lead to a lack of photosynthesis which is the process of converting light energy into chemical energy, water and carbon dioxide is taken in by these plants and converted to oxygen and organic matter such as glucose.
The longer nights mean that various plants and trees will not be able to photosynthesise as often as they can during the spring and summer months. Leading to trees beginning to slow down their energy production resulting in their luscious green leaves breaking down due to lack of nutrition, becoming the crisp and vibrant ambers, reds and oranges we, all know and love, and gradually falling to the ground. Leaving trees looking rather baron in time for the winter months.
Although usually the majority of autumn can tend to be fairly mild with frequent temperature spikes and drops. Towards the end of the autumnal season becomes a higher risk of stormy conditions and harsher winds from the Atlantic, known as the ‘Atlantic depressions,’ which is a low-pressure weather system that forms over the Atlantic Ocean, and brings unsettled, stormy weather to the UK. The weather brought in a depression, unsurprisingly is wet, windy and overcast, and can often lead to a storm.
Autumn 2023 saw 4 separate storms sweep their way through the UK. The first being storm Agnes in late September, storm Babet in mid-October, storm Ciaran at the end of October, and finally storm Debi struck in mid-November. Causing disruption, flooding, and power outages all over the UK and Ireland.
This year although we have not yet seen as many storms as 2023 did, on the 20th of October the UK was hit by storm Ashley, the first storm of the season, where various amber weather alerts were issued across the UK with winds reaching 70 to 81 mph and heavy rain causing flooding and travel disruption across the UK.
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Autumn is widely considered a transitional period between summer and winter; the unpredictability of daily autumnal weather makes it hard to confidently define exactly what is typical autumn weather.
Overall, autumn weather consists of spells of both dramatically warm or cooler temperatures, increasingly shorter daylight hours which eventually leads to the annual autumn equinox where the UK clocks fall back an hour, resulting in the sun rising and setting an hour earlier, this will continue until the spring equinox that occurs on the last Sunday of March the following year.
Autumn is also the beginning of storm season; therefore, it is typical to expect regular weather warnings relating to strong winds, heavy rainfall, and overcast stormy conditions during these months.
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