Ice cream and fun at the seaside? It must be October Daily Telegraph 28th October 2005 www.telegraph.co.uk Britain enjoyed a late taste of summer yesterday as much of the country experienced the warmest October 27th since records began. Bikinis were given a last airing before winter, ice cream sales hit an unseasonable high and traffic jams emerged as parents with children on half-term holiday headed for the beach. The villagers of Aultbea in Wester Ross in the Highlands, enjoyed the day's highest temperature of 21.2°C (70°F), defeating the previous record of 20.3°C in London in 1888.

John Deakin, the owner of a cafe and craft shop in the village, said the hot weather was a bonus for autumn tourists from south of the border. At the Aultbea Hotel, the bar was full as customers chose to drink indoors to avoid the strong winds that accompanied the freak weather.

Elsewhere, temperatures of 19-20°C were standard across Britain as warm air was carried north by winds from Spain, Portugal and Africa. Both London and Edinburgh were warmer than Istanbul. After a half-term week that began with torrential rain, and with forecasters warning that the Indian Summer would last only for a single day, hundreds of families headed for the nearest beach.

Children paddled in the North Sea at Tynemouth, and it looked a lot like mid-summer on the beaches at Brighton and at Bournemouth, where a traffic jam built up on the A31. Andrea Marshall, who was enjoying the sun in Bournemouth with her sons David, nine, and Luther, six, said: "My boys have loved it the last few days. They are just wearing shorts and playing as if it is the middle of summer."

At Portobello, outside Edinburgh, Jennifer Keellings, 19, a barmaid, enjoyed a dip as she tried to top up her tan. "I can't believe the weather is so gorgeous," she said, "especially after all the rain we have been having. It makes everybody so much happier."

In London, Selfridges sold twice as much ice cream as on a normal October day, and stores experienced a late run on T-shirts. The temperature fell well short of 29°C - the highest temperature recorded in October in Britain - but the month is expected to be one of the five warmest Octobers in history.

The average daily temperature at this time of year is around 14°C in the south of England, Lyneham's average is 13.7°C and 12°C in the north-west of Scotland. The highest ever recorded temperature for an October day in Lyneham was way back in 1959 where thermometers topped 25°C. Forecasters have also predicted a colder than average winter ahead. Last week, Ewen McCallum, the chief meteorologist at the Met Office, issued an "amber alert", warning that it could be the coldest winter for a decade.