February concluded a set of three winter months which
brought no extremes of temperature or rainfall, and a period which has been recognised nationally as probably the sunniest on record. The number of clear ‘blue sky’ days does seem to stand out in the mind. Normally when this happens at this time of year we would expect the 14-hour long nights to see the temperatures fall very low, but the month’s coldest night registered -4.1C on the 2nd is not an outstanding figure for February, despite it being the lowest since 2012. This night complimented the start of a dry, cold period with NW-N winds which lasted until the 11th. When the wind dropped, the increasingly strong sunshine made its presence felt and daytime temperatures rose to double digit highs. However the month’s highest figure of 14.5C did not occur until the 25th, in a much more unsettled period of weather.

Once the dry spell broke, rainfall occurred on all but two of
the remaining days of the month, and there were three wet days which gave nearly 50mm of the month’s final total of 81mm. This is a little more than what might be considered an ‘average’ figure. A quarter of the monthly total fell on 22nd with 21mm.

Overall, the winter was a little colder than last, but
recorded the same number of frosts, 29. This comparison is probably distorted because of my ‘adjusted’ minimum temperature readings. But the total rainfall figure of 228.2mm is rather less than the total which fell just in February last year, and was the driest since 2012. Probably the ‘most average’ of winters that we have had in terms of the rainfall and temperature, and coupled with the sunshine, leaves the impression to me that if you have to endure winter this would be the best of the bunch!

Peter at Pottlelake