Wick weather watcher says most will be glad to see end of October – 'most stormy on record'

A weather pundit based in Wick gave his opinion on the local conditions saying that October 2023 bore witness to a record breaking number of "days of gale".

Keith Banks, who writes a weather column for the paper, referenced the term "day of gale" as a meteorological definition in which "a minimum period of 10 minutes during any 24-hour recording period ending at 0100 (GMT) where the wind velocity at a fixed location, is a sustained 39.1mph/33.9 knots or greater".

He continued: "Given the wretched weather experienced across most parts of the UK during October 2023, I believe it is reasonable to suggest that most people will be glad that the month is now history.

"However, for the record, it may be of interest to readers in Caithness that my investigations, based upon the archive records available for Wick in terms of the parameter for wind velocity for a series of previous Octobers, have revealed that here in Wick, October 2023 was a record breaker in terms of so called days of gale for that month.

"There were no fewer than eight days of gale logged in Wick last month. A review of a series of Octobers dating back to that of 1957 showed that the previous record was just four days of gale recorded in the town 62 years ago in October 1961."

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