A wintry end

It may come as something as a surprise, but the monthly mean temperature for February 2005 was fractionally above the long-term average over most of the UK. The second half of February was certainly cold – the coldest such period for nineteen years – but this was entirely offset by the mildness of the first half of the month.

Mean maximum temperature ranged from 8.9ºC at Pendennis Point in Cornwall to 3.8ºC at Dalwhinnie in Inverness-shire, while mean minimum temperature varied between 5.9ºC at St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly to –0.7ºC at Dalwhinnie. Taking the month as a whole, it was slightly colder than February 2004 but slightly warmer than February 2003.

The warmest days were the 11th and, in southern England, the 12th, and on the latter date the mercury climbed to 14.1ºC in central London, but that marked the end of the long period of mild weather which had characterised the earlier part of the winter. There were several extremely cold nights during the last fortnight, the temperature falling to –11.4ºC at Kinbrace in Sutherland during the early hours of the 25th. More remarkable, perhaps, was the –9.5ºC at Redhill aerodrome in Surrey overnight 27th-28th; this was the coldest February night in many parts of southern England for 14 years.

It was a dry February over much of the UK especially in southern counties, and in parts of Devon, Dorset, Hampshire and West Sussex there was less than one-fifth of the normal amount of rain – rainfall includes melted snow. Portsmouth was driest of all with just 7.8mm which is a mere 15 per cent of the local average. Averaged over England and Wales rainfall amounted to 70 per cent of the long-term average, and this February ranked 35th driest in the last 100 years. Northern and eastern Scotland, northeast England, Norfolk and east Kent were rather wetter than average, and in all these areas the main contribution to the monthly rainfall was provided by the heavy snowfalls of the last week. In fact snow lay 52cm deep at Boltshope Park in County Durham on the 25th.

Sunshine was very variable both in time and space. The second half of February was much sunnier than the first half in England and Wales; vice versa in Scotland. Monthly totals were 20 to 30 per cent above normal in Shetland, the Central Lowlands of Scotland, south Wales and southwest England, but 30 per cent below in the northeast of the Scottish mainland.

©Philip Eden 2005