Although the first few days of the month started mild, October as a whole was a rather cool, wet and unsettled month, more so over England, Wales and Northern Ireland than over Scotland. Widespread flooding started during the second week in Sussex and parts of Kent, and the last week turned out very stormy.

The Central England Temperature (CET) was 10.3°C, which is 0.3 degC below the average of the standard reference period of 1961-90 and still 0.1 degC below the 1971-00 average. Birmingham and Aberdeen had very similar temperatures during October. The coldest days occurred at the end of the month with the 30th being the coldest. Unsurprisingly the warmest place was Guernsey recording a monthly mean of 15.8°C and coldest Lerwick with 11.1degC.

October 2003 was an extremely wet month, in fact it has been the wettest October since 1903, which with 218.1mm was the wettest October on record. Almost all stations monitored have been recording rainfall totals well above average. Total average rainfall over the UK was 188mm, which is about 200% of the average October. The greatest rainfall excess was in the south of England and the Midlands. Folkestone and Birmingham, for example, both recorded nearly three times their average October rainfall. Lerwick was the least anomalous, recording only 20 per cent more rainfall than usual. During the last week of October, the country received nearly its entire average October rainfall. Wettest place was Morecambe with a total 246mm and driest Skegness with 'only' 75mm.

Despite dull and wet weather, October also managed to give almost the average amount of sunshine. The country as a whole recorded 97% per cent of the 1961-90 average and much of Scotland received even slightly more than usual. Lerwick managed more sunshine than Lowestoft during the month, a rare achievement for October. But even with all the rain over England, some parts also enjoyed high sunshine totals. Bristol and Morecambe, for example, recorded 1more sunshine than the norm, despite receiving well over twice normal rainfall levels. The sunniest day of the month was the 19th, with nearly 7 hours sunshine across the country. In contrast the 28th recorded less than 1 hour of sun. Scarborough was sunniest with a total 0f 133 hours of sunshine, while Birmingham was cloudiest with only 69 hours of sun.