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