Two spells of settled weather during September have contributed to a rather dry and sunny but cool September.

Provisional statistics for the month show that after a wet end to August, September has been drier than average for much of the UK with figures up to the 28 September showing that there has been 53.3mm of rain, only 55% of the September average of 96.4mm.

Northern and western Scotland have been particularly dry with only 37% and 31% of the September average for rainfall having been recorded. In comparison, parts of eastern and southeast England have seen above average rainfall. Wales has seen 75mm of rain, 64% of average, while Northern Ireland recorded 51% of the September average for rainfall with a total of 47.1mm.

Many places have enjoyed a sunny month with 137 hours of sunshine recorded across the UK, this is 10% above the average for September.

However, despite the dry and sunny weather conditions, September has seen some rather cool days and nights. Mean temperatures across the UK up until the 28 September are 0.8C below normal with minimum temperatures across England and Wales around 1.5C below the September average. Five UK observing sites have already recorded their first frost of the season.

September 2015 rainfall amount

September 2015 sunshine anomaly

The outlook for the first few days of October is for the fine, settled weather to continue before we see a transition towards more changeable weather next week with rain at times. Check out our five day forecast for more details.