Last month was the warmest February in England and Wales since information started in 1884, the Met Office has mentioned.
The imply temperature throughout the entire of the UK was 6.3C (43.3F), the second warmest February for the entire nation for the reason that final document of 6.8C (44.2F) was set in 1998.
The south of England additionally had its wettest February in a time sequence courting again to 1836, with a lot of the area experiencing greater than twice the typical rainfall.
Average rainfall throughout the UK was 139.8mm, which falls simply outdoors the highest 10 wettest Februarys on document. The highest quantity of February rainfall ever was 213.7mm in 2020.
East Anglia broke information on each fronts, having had its warmest and wettest February on document. The space noticed 106.4mm of rain all through February and had a imply temperature of 8.2C (46.8F).
Overall the UK skilled much less sunshine than typical – 145.6 hours – the equal of 90% of the long-term common.
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The heat and moist sample was additionally true of the remainder of meteorological winter 2023/24, falling within the prime 5 warmest and prime eight wettest on document.
The common temperature was 5.3C (41.5F) throughout the three months and a complete of 445.8mm fell in rain – 29% greater than the long-term common.
There had been 5 named storms all through winter – Elin, Fergus, Gerritt, Henk, Isha, and Jocelyn. Storm Jocelyn was the tenth named storm and solely the second time the letter J has been reached within the alphabet in the course of the UK storm season.
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Fewer chilly spells probably
Mike Kendon, senior scientist on the Met Office, mentioned: “February has perhaps been the quietest month of the winter, without any further named storms, whereas Gerrit in December and Henk and Isha in January all caused significant weather impacts.
“Despite a chilly spell within the North within the first half of the month, the primary theme of February is how persistently gentle and moist it has been, significantly within the South, and that is largely because of the affect of Atlantic low-pressure techniques bringing a predominant gentle, southwesterly circulation. This gentle, moist theme can be true of winter total.”
Weather information exhibits a transparent warming development for common winter temperatures within the UK, one that’s anticipated to proceed on account of human-induced local weather change.
This means there’ll nonetheless be chilly spells, the Met Office mentioned, just like the one within the first half of January, however they’re prone to be much less frequent and fewer extreme.
Source: information.sky.com”