AFTER the dull, damp end to October, November began with a couple of sunny days and just a light breeze from the west.

With late blooms in the garden and autumn leaves on the trees, one was suddenly aware of just how much colour there was. Overcast conditions returned, however, on Monday, November 3, and prevailed until the end of the week with rain or drizzle in the wind much of the time, but it was a very mild wind from the south-west. Temperatures were high for the time of year with a maximum of 16.5⁰C (62⁰F) in Wellington on Wednesday, November 5, being the fifth highest November reading on record in this area, the next day being almost as warm.

We then entered a nine-day spell of disturbed weather with several wet days, and with winds generally coming from the south-west it remained unusually mild and dull. The exception was Saturday, November 8, sunny throughout and entirely rain-free, while Remembrance Sunday was blighted by heavy rain. The start of the next week saw the development of a significant depression over the Atlantic, in due course named storm “Claudia” by the Spanish meteorological service. This gave us a windy and thoroughly wet day and night on Tuesday, November 11, the resulting 29mm (1.14 inches) making that our wettest day since January. By mid-month we had received over 80% of the November average rainfall, and our reservoirs were at last starting to refill.

With a ridge of high air pressure settling over the country, things became cooler on Sunday, November 16. The skies having cleared overnight, the next day was quite chilly with wall-to-wall sunshine and a light breeze from the east. That night the temperature in Wellington fell below freezing for the first time this autumn, and although there was a short spell of rain in the night of November 18, that marked the passage of a cold front behind which was a flow of even colder air from the Arctic. Sunshine by day and frost by night was the pattern until the weekend, which saw mild rain-bearing winds return from the south-west.

The final week began with a north wind once again. There was unbroken sunshine on Tuesday, November 25, followed by the month’s coldest night, the temperature dropping to minus 4⁰C (25⁰F) in Wellington. There was then another quick turnaround, so that Thursday, November 27, was notably mild for so late in the year, with a maximum in Wellington of 14⁰C (57⁰F) despite the absence of sunshine. The “chop and change” theme continued for the last three days, with some heavy showers, good spells of sunshine, and more rain in the closing hours of the month.

November 2025 ended up as the sixth warmest on record, with a mean temperature of 8.7⁰C (47.7⁰F) in Wellington. The total rainfall of 143mm (5.6 inches) was 125 per cent of the average, while paradoxically it was also sunnier than normal.