Wettest October in more than 100 years for eastern Scotland

October was eastern Scotland’s wettest on record in a series dating back to 1836.

I know the news will be met with a bit of an eye roll, as it’s obvious that’s where we’ve been heading after a deluge from Storm Babet.

Much of the Borders, East Lothian, Angus, Fife and Aberdeenshire had twice the usual rainfall for October while South and East Ayrshire had around half of what we normally expect.

This has largely been down to the jet stream pushing main storm systems further south across England and Wales, which puts Scotland in an easterly air flow with most of the rainfall then falling in eastern areas.

Normally in the UK most of our weather comes in from the west, and that’s why it’s usually the west of the country where we see the wettest conditions.

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Aboyne in Aberdeenshire comes out as one of the wettest locations in October with 316mm of rain, beating the previous record by nearly 100mm. This is also three times the usual rainfall for the month.

Balmoral wasn’t too far behind with 276mm clocked up in October, beating the previous record by 40mm, although this is a very significant record, as we have over 100 years of records from the village.

Leuchars also has just over 100 years of records, and again it beat its previous October record by 20mm with 203mm falling through the month.

In contrast, Auchincruive in Ayrshire had just 90mm of rain for the month. To put that into context, some parts of Aberdeenshire had over 100mm fall in just one day during Storm Babet. Dundrennan on the southern coast of Dumfries and Galloway had less than half the usual rainfall for October with just 88mm falling.

Wettest vs driest as eastern Scotland has wettest October on record. STV News

The SEPA rain gauge in Charr, which is close to Bridge of Dye in Aberdeenshire has reported 405mm for October, which is equivalent to the rainfall which has fallen here in June, July, August and September all together.

Storm tracks continue to be to the south and this means that the bulk of the rainfall from our next storm, Ciaran, will again fall in the east of the country with further flooding issues possible in Angus, East Lothian and the Borders.