EVEN though high pressure appeared by mid- September and dominated the weather until almost its end, it was another wet and disappointingly dull month.

It largely dried up after the 13th but stayed rather miserable for a further twelve days, apart from Saturday the 20th.

Sunshine amounts were the lowest in September for about 30 years in places. When combined with the meagre August figure, the sum for the two months in some locations was probably the most miserly for nearly a century.

Rainfall had already exceeded expectations by the start of the drier interlude and by the last day of the month it reached between 125 and 200pc of average. This made it the wettest September widely since 2001.

In the 16 days from the 14th, there was only around one-sixteenth of the month’s accumulation.

In contrast, on the 5th, about half the month’s total, over 35mm (1.4ins), tumbled down across the region. It was the greatest deluge in a September day in the North-East going back to the monsoon that followed the hot, dry summer of 1976.

The Dales were drenched by as much as 70mm (2.8ins) and suffered over 100mm (4ins) in 48 hours. With the ground saturated from all the rain during this summer, flooding was inevitable.

One of the features that characterised the summer, chilly days but mild nights, owing to the cloudy skies, continued, though not quite to the extreme that we experienced in August.

Temperatures were slightly above normal overall. Mean maxima, if anything, were a little below and were the coldest in September since, yet again, 2001 - but at least that summer was drier.

Sadly, 20C (68F), the average generally achieved in September 2006, was bettered just once this month.

The very warm and thundery conditions that briefly affected us at the end of August were briskly pushed away as a front moved east in the early hours of the 1st.

This brought fresher south-westerlies and restored the all too familiar unsettled regime that we had throughout the summer.

Atlantic depressions ran northeast towards us every few days.

These tracked mainly over or close to Scotland though the active one, responsible for the downpour on the 5th, took a route across North Yorkshire.

A front that passed through early on Thursday the 11th came to a halt off the East Coast and returned to give a wet afternoon and evening on the Friday. Its reversal was caused by pressure building over Scandinavia and marked a significant change in the pattern of our weather.

Alas, this turned out to be a considerable anti-climax as the front became sandwiched over us between the resulting high and another extending towards us from the Azores. It proved surprisingly persistent due to the convergence of the airstreams around the two anticyclones.

The week-end was fine but, annoyingly, there was a lot of cloud.

This thickened as well and it remained mostly overcast until the Wednesday, with steady light rain on the Tuesday.

Eventually, the front died out as the highs linked across southern Britain producing a south-westerly flow over the north. Consequently, Saturday the 20th was sunny and the warmest day of the month. This must have been an immense relief to the organisers of the Stokesley Show.

Irritatingly, the anticyclone then transferred to the north of us, switching the wind round to a north-easterly. This carried more gloomy skies, together with the odd patch of drizzle, in off the North Sea for the next five days.

The high then edged away across Scandinavia and the breeze backed south-easterly. This drew in drier air from off the continent.

The sun re-emerged and shone over the final week-end.

September Temperatures and Rainfall at Carlton-in-Cleveland: Mean maximum: 16.7C, 62F (-0.5C, -1.0F); mean minimum: 10.6C, 51F (+1.0C, +2F); highest maximum: 20.8C, 69.5F, 20th; lowest minimum: 5.5C, 42F, 5th; total rainfall: 81mm, 3.2ins (+23mm, +0.9ins); wettest day: 39mm, 1.5ins, 5th and number of rain days, with 0.2mm (0.01ins) or more: 16 (+3). Figures in brackets show the difference from the 25- year mean, 1983-2007.