Rain fell on two days making it one of the driest months
FEBRUARY was the driest month we have had for 25 years locally and at Dave Mutton’s station in Cosby his 9mm was the driest in his record since 1959!
High pressure dominated for virtually the entire month as it sat over or near to the British Isles. As you would expect rainfall totals were very low.
Dave recorded just 9mm out of the expected 48mm. At Mountsorrel, I logged just 9.9mm and Dean Whittaker at his Hinckley station recorded just 8.4mm or just 17% of his expected figure.
Steve Jackson has noted that for his Coventry site it was the driest since 1998 with just 7.1mm of rain. Only 4 February months have been drier than that since 1870 (1891, 1921, 1959 and 1998)
The position of the high pressure meant that for most of the time mild Atlantic sourced winds affected us with just a colder spell in the second week. Average afternoon temperatures reached 10.2c at Mountsorrel and Hinckley with nigh time temps being logged at 3.2c.
There were 8 air frosts recorded in the month. The average temp of 6.7c which is 1.7c above normal once again put February in the very mild category. Steve at his site at Bablake school in Coventry where he has access to over 130 years of records has noted the last five Februaries have all been above average.
Only seven February months have been warmer than this year since 1892 and five of these in the last 60 years, namely 1990, 1997,
1998, 2002 and 2022. It is also interesting to note that since 1990 February’s temperature has risen on average by 1.3c which is a familiar pattern identified too in many other months in this time frame.
There were no days with snow falling in February the first time since 1997.
The position of the high pressure varied slightly but on some days very high sunshine totals were recorded.
The monthly total recorded by Steve in Coventry amounted to 110 hours which was 34% higher than normal. Long term sunshine figures have risen markedly in recent decades with the average 84 hours recently being 60% higher than the case in the 19th century.
The weather pattern for the entire month was unusually the same with the high being centred around the British Isles
Most of the time, this allowed for some cold nights in the first week with temperatures down to -3.5c on the 7th with 6 consecutive frosts.
The second week got much warmer and 15.6c was recorded on the 17th then Dean in Hinckley. logged 15.8c on the 20th our warmest day of the month. Rain really fell on just 2 days - the 22nd which saw 5.4mm in Mountsorrel and the 28th when 2mm was recorded.
Winter as a whole this year was milder, drier but sunnier than usual. It was the driest winter since 2016/17 the sunniest since 2007/8 and the only winter with more sunshine than winter 2022/23 since records began in 1894 locally.
Many thanks to Steve Jackson, Dean Whittaker and Dave Mutton for their help with compiling the February report.