Well, September turned out to be a rather interesting month with a total of 7 yellow weather warnings from the Met office. We went from autumn to summer and then back again. It has also been a very wet month. We are still waiting to see if it’s been the wettest September or not.

So, we started September with warm temperatures a nice 24°C, but it wasn’t long before a weather front brought its first area of rain, along with mist and fog and feeling humid. High pressure tried to move in during the first week of September, but unfortunately, west/northwesterly winds decided to stay with us.

By the 4th of September, the Met office issued the first yellow warning for rain due to a low pressure system. KWT also issued our own thunderstorm watch during this period. Then the following weekend, along came the second Met office warning for rain. Courtesy of a low pressure system close by. Outbreaks of rain kept coming and by the 7th of September a 3rd Met office weather warning for rain was issued. By now concerns over the amount of rainfall was being widely discussed, some warnings gave the risk of 40-60mm of rainfall, which lead to some localised flooding. 

A cold air mass followed for the second week in September, with northwesterly winds bringing a noticeable chill to the air. Bringing temperatures at night to lows of 0°C, 4°C daytime to moorlands and highs of 12°C, this lead to many people switching their heating on and lighting fires, also, you guessed it, more rain.

Summer makes a brief return

Don’t get me wrong there were some lovely sunny days, and into the second week high-pressure brought us a week of summer. Temperatures rose to 24°C in places and brought some gorgeous warm days with it. But a thundery breakdown was looming. 

Two lows, one off Portugal and one sitting out to the southwest, was giving us forecasters a headache. Warm humid air was being pulled up from the southeast, this helped fuel the ingredients for thunderstorms during the weekend of the 20th, and well they certainly arrived. By the 19th a yellow thunderstorm warning was issued by the met office, then came a second thunderstorm warning, then on the 20th another warning was issued for heavy rain.

Storms arrive as meterorological autumn heads our way

Early on the morning of Saturday 21st, the showers arrived from the Northeast and gradually turned into an exciting thunderstorm for us here at KWT. Many areas of West Cornwall saw amazing lightning, thunder boomed but also came with flash flooding. Penzance was badly affected and many roads across west Cornwall inundated with rainfall. Myself and Dave were out chasing, and witnessed some very exciting weather.

Then just as we enter the last week of September, along comes another low-pressure, (a storm with no name), and another two yellow weather warnings for rain from the Met office. By now our ground is so saturated any additional rainfall will lead to flooding.  

We’re now about to head into October, all eyes are on the Atlantic, and the hurricane season, with the threat of further low-pressure systems.