October 1888 was very unusual, it started of with record breaking minima with lying snow in places and ended with record breaking maxima.

2nd October: -4.9C (23.2F) at Stapleton (North Yorks.)

27th October : 20.3C (68.5F) at Old Street , London (The record maximum for that date until 2005)

Here are some reports from this October

1st: Otterburn-in Craven: Snow from 9 to 12 o'clock; Thixendale: Fall of snow; Shap: Heavy fall of snow; Llanwrtyd Wells: Snow at night; Llanidloes: About 4 inches of snow fell at night

2nd: Snow 2 inches deep on the hills

3rd: Rochester: Ice, 0.25" thick, a most unusual occurrence; Berkampstead: The havoc made in the garden by this frost was extraordinary, a large walnut tree had every leaf destroyed and every walnut on it frozen through; Thixendale: Ice 0.5" thick

4th: Drumnadroicht: Snow on low ground

Littlehampton: The sharpest frosts ever registered in October occurred at the beginning of the month, but vegetation recovered wonderfully, heliotrope, mignonette, pomegranate and myrtle being in full bloom.

Oxford: A ridiculous month beginning with snow and frost and ending with a temp. of 67F on 27th.

Hitchen: On the 27th, the max temp was 68.0F, snow on the 2nd

Addington: Perhaps one of the most remarkable Octobers on record for number of frosty nights (17). The min. temps were exceptionally low for the first three weeks, and as remarkably high during the remainder of the month.

Woolstaston: Snow on the 1st

Orleton: Snow covered the land two inches deep. At 9am on the 24th, the shade temp was 33F and at 9am on the 25th, it was 56F

Manchester: October began with a wintry aspect and there were several frosty nights and some slight falls of snow

Cargen: Mean temp of first week: 40.7F, mean temp of the last week: 52.7F Snow on the 1st and 4th

Oban: Snow on the hills on the 1st that lasted to the 7th

CET trackometer
1. 6.1
2. 5.1
3. 5.2
4. 5.3
5. 5.2
6. 5.0
7. 5.0
8. 5.2
9. 5.5
10. 5.7
11. 6.0
12. 6.3
13. 6.4
14. 6.4
15. 6.4
16. 6.4
17. 6.5
18. 6.7
19. 6.8
20. 6.7
21. 6.7
22. 6.6
23. 6.6
24. 6.6
25. 6.7
26. 7.0
27. 7.4
28. 7.7
29. 7.8
30. 7.9
31. 7.9

 On the 10th October 1888, there was a strange darkness during the mid afternoon period across the East Midlands.

"The sun was shining brightly, when. about 3.30pm, a very dark cloud came up from the NE along the valley of the Ouse; it was impossible to distinguish any object 10 yeards off. The owls, bats and beetles all came out and the pheasants went up to roost." - Hitchen, Herts.
"Remarkable phenomenon; total darkness from 3.00 to 3.20pm." - Derby.

Thanks.

Out of interest, what are the charts from so far back based on? Are there any observations from outside the UK or are they a bit of a guess?

Based on observations, the Times published basic weather maps back even then.

Interesting charts there

Just goes to illustrate the difficulties with long range forecasting. Both charts show an upper cold trough as the sandwich filling between two ridges but by the end of the month it has just shifted a little further west. Instead of a freezing cold north-easterly blast the UK is under a tropical southerly.

27th October 1888 maxima

21.1C Boston, Stroud

20.4C Camden Square

20.0C Hitchin, Leicester

Waringstown reported a maximum of 21.1C on the 28th

Stratfield Turgiss: the end of the month was warm and close

Hitchin: on the 27th, the mean was 17.2C

Langton Herring: 24th to 28th was unusually warm

Woolstaston: very warm for last week

Cargen: mean temp of first week was 4.8C, last week was 11.5C

Dublin: the last seven days were remarkably warm

Edenfel: mean temp of 27th was 15.8C