Last month was the second warmest October since 1922, with an average temperature of 23.5°C, the Meteorological Office said.

The average for October is 20.7°C, making last month 2.8°C warmer than the mean.

October was also the 10th driest since 1933 thanks to 21.4mm of rainfall in total, compared to the average of 89.7mm.

The warmest day of the month was October 14 when temperatures rose to 31.9°C – still short of the highest temperature ever recorded in October: 34.5°C on October 7, 1999.

Night temperatures were also 2.7°C warmer than average at a 19.8°C mean.

The coolest night last month was the 24th, when the temperatures dropped to 16.5°C.

The mean sea temperature was 25.2°C, which is warmer than the October mean of 22.9°C.

October had a mean 7.6 hours of bright sunshine per day, which is 0.5 hours more than the average for the month.

In total, there were 236.5 hours of sunshine.

The brightest day was October 2 with 10.7 hours of sunshine, while the dullest was October 8, with no sunshine.