Hottest Halloween on record making it more like June

Flaming pumpkin pictured in Marston Mortaine in Bedfordshire. Credit: Vicki Lawrence

It's been more like flaming June that autumnal Halloween in the Anglia region and across the UK as temperature records for the last day in October have been shattered.

The thermometer reached 23.6°C (74.5°F) in Kew, London and Gravesend, Kent. The average maximum temperature in South East England at this time of year is around 13°C.

The Met Office said it beat the previous high of 20°C (68°F) set at Dartford in Kent in 1968. Conditions were warmer than those in many popular holiday destinations, including Rome (20°C), Barcelona (22°C) and San Francisco (19°C).

Maximum temperatures in the Anglia region on 31 October 2014

  • 21.7°C at Monks Wood near Sawtry, Cambs

  • 21.7°C in Woburn, Bedfordshire

  • 21.6°C in Santon Downham, Suffolk

  • 21.5°C at Houghton Hall in Norfolk

  • 21.4°C in Marham, Norfolk

  • 21.4°C in Harpenden, Herts

  • 21.3°C in Writtle, Essex

  • 21.2°C in Bedford

  • 21.2°C at Brooms Barn near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

  • 21.2°C in Cambridge

  • 21.2°C in Wittering, Cambs

  • 21.1°C in Weybourne, Norfolk

  • 20.9°C in Northampton

  • 20.8°C in Holbeach, Lincs

  • 20.7°C in Cromer, Norfolk

  • 20.7°C in Stowe, Buckinghamshire

  • 20.6°C at Andrewsfield near Braintree, Essex

  • 20.6°C in Cavendish, Suffolk

  • 20.5°C at Norwich Airport

  • 20.5°C in Shoeburyness, Essex

'Stowmarket Starry Sky' carved by siblings Samuel and Emmeline Rogers.

October 2014 has been one of the hottest on record in the Anglia region and the first ten months of the year are the warmest ever in East Anglia.

Every month in 2014, except August, has been warmer than normal. If November and December hit at least average temperatures, 2014 will beat 2011 as the hottest year since East Anglian records started in 1910.

A temperature of 21.2C was recorded at Burgh Castle near Gt Yarmouth at noon on Halloween. Credit: Damon Hoyle

Supermarket Tesco said the weather had prompted record October barbecue and party food sales.

Its Halloween manager Serena Fleming said: "Not only is Halloween on a Friday but with the unseasonably warm and dry weather we believe many people will hold parties with festivities spilling out into gardens and barbecue cook-outs around bonfires.

"The weather is even predicted to be sunny and warm on Saturday so we could even see more barbecues taking place then."