The UK in February
Mike Hulme on last month’s weather
DAYTIME TEMPERATURES
Surprisingly perhaps, given
the end to the month, February was a slightly milder month than average,
although not in Scotland. The month
started cold, but enjoyed a very mild second week and by Sunday 11th
nationwide daytime temperature averaged nearly 11C, about 4C above normal. The mild weather stayed with us until the 23rd
after which the cold snap set in. For
the month as a whole, the north of Scotland was about 1C colder than usual, but
parts of southern England were between 1.5 and 2C milder than average. Temperatures thus far this year have been
close to average in the UK.
RAINFALL
Rainfall totals were quite
varied over the UK during February. The
north of England and southern Scotland were quite dry, but the north of
Scotland and much of the rest of the country was very wet. This was especially so in the southeast of
England and Folkestone and Lowestoft both recorded more than twice their
average February rainfall. In fact
Folkestone, most unusually, was the wettest of the 20 locations monitored in
this column with 180mm of rainfall.
Most of the month’s rainfall fell during the first 10 days of the month
with the 4th being the
wettest single day. Overall, UK recorded
50% more rainfall than is usual during February.
SUNSHINE
The most striking thing
about the year 2001 so far in the UK is how sunny it has been. Sunshine in January was about 50% above
normal and during February the country recorded 25% more sunshine than is
usual. Sunshine amounts were inversely
correlated with rainfall, so the south of England and northern Scotland were
the cloudiest, but Wales, central and northern England and southern Scotland
were all sunnier than average. Leuchars
in eastern Scotland was the sunniest location with 105 hours of sun and
Birmingham enjoyed over 3 hours of sunshine per day, compared to an average of
about 2 hours. Valentine’s Day was
especially sunny this year – 7 hours of sunshine as a nationwide average!
Dr Mike Hulme is a Director
of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, at UEA
(more details at website at
www.tyndall.ac.uk)
February 2001: Wet and mild in the south, sunny elsewhere
Daytime Temperature: 0.4C above average; Rainfall: 50% above average; Sunshine: 25% above average.
[all average figures are
based on the 1951-80 average]
Mean monthly extremes:
Warmest Guernsey 10.0C
Sunniest Leuchars 105 hours
sun
Wettest Folkestone 184mm
Coldest Lerwick 3.7C
Cloudiest Lowestoft 62 hours sun
Driest Skegness 40mm