BobNSue

My wife and I are considering a two/three week trip to London. We've visited London in the past, but only in the summer. We've looked at the official temperature ranges. Would someone tell me what to truly expect for October weather ? Should it be warm enough to spend significant time outside or should we plan on hiding from the weather / (Probably not something that local Londoners would do, eh?)
Thanks

flanneruk

The answer to both your questions is "Yes"

Look, it's now mid-March. October weather doesn't differ very much. In the past 48 hours, I've walked in my shirtsleeves for several hours across the fields in non-weatherproof shoes. I've watched a 10-minute blizzard from my window. I've been blown back from the road next to my mother in law's because the 70 mph winds were simply impossible to walk in. I've seen five snow showers. All stuck - none for longer than 30 minutes.

During the day, it's gone from 60 (I imagine you're originally Canadian, in spite of your address. Here we use real temperatures) to minus 3 (actually we use foreign temperatures when it's below freezing) and back again twice. And there hasn't ben a vreath of winf for the past 24 hours.

Any, all, or none of the above (except snow, which never happens in October) are equally likely. Ignore what the websites say, and come prepared for:
- anything, but
- there is no October weather in which it's impossible to walk around outside in English cities

Rastaguytoday

One of my favorite British sayings is, not that it's going to be sunny, rather "occasional periods of brightness".

flanneruk pretty much says it all. I've had wonderful Octobers in Britain and terrible Octobers in Britain, sometimes in the same year.

janisj

. . . sometimes on the same day.

azzure

Here in Seattle the euphemistic term for "periods of brightness" is "sunbreaks". I will be in London this October and am expecting similar weather to what we are used to in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. However, last October I was in France, Switzerland and Italy and European weather was considerably warmer than what we were having at home.

audere_est_facere

Dull in the north.

Bright in the south.

No, sorry, that's the people.

As Flanneur said - pretty much anything could happpen - and it's unlikely that you will have one type of weather for your trip. Bring something warm and something waterproof and sensible shoes and you'll be fine.

Heimdall

Actually, the term 'bright intervals' means periods where there is only one layer of clouds between you and the sun, rather than two or three. ;-). You will likely observe this during your landing approach to Heathrow or Gatwick.

Use Weather Underground Trip Planner to see actual weather stats for previous years. Plug in the dates of your trip to see what has occurred in the past.

Heimdall

Sorry, left out the link: http://tinyurl.com/2o56p6.

BobNSue

Thank you all. You have been very helpful, as always.