In a press release last Friday the UK Met Office announced that:
England and Wales had their respective warmest Februarys on record according to provisional Met Office statistics in what was a mild and wet month for many.
The average temperature in England for February 2024 was 7.5°C, topping the previous record of 7.0°C set in 1990. Wales saw an average mean temperature at 6.9°C for the month, marginally ahead of 1998’s record of 6.8°C.
The UK experienced its second warmest February, averaging 6.3°C, but not surpassing February 1998’s figure of 6.8°C. The UK’s 10 warmest Februarys on record in a series from 1884 now include 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2019.
As you can see from the accompanying graphic, temperatures across South West England were over 2.5 °C warmer than the 1991-2020 average.
It won’t come as a shock to discover that also:
It was also a wetter than average month, with the south of England experiencing its wettest February since the series began in 1836. Many parts of southern England recorded well over twice the average rainfall.
Across almost all of Devon and Cornwall rainfall was over twice the 1991-2020 average for February!
To be continued…
