Friday saw the thermometer rise above average (+0.8C) with a maximum of 11.1C. It was a dry day with light rain showers falling just before 03.15 in the early hours of Saturday morning, amounting to 2.1mm.
Saturday started with thick cloud and the thermometer registering 9.1C at 08.00 after a mild night as the thermometer did not fall below 7.0C (+5C).
February 2019 review
February 2019 was another month with a broken record, twice, with the warmest February day held since 1998. On the 25th the thermometer rose to a maximum of 17.7C with the following day higher again at 18.2C, which was 11.1C above the 35-year average.
It was a warm month with a mean temperature of 5.92C but did not break any records although it was 1.3C above the average. February 2011 was warmer with a mean of 6.29C. To offset the very warm days a frost was recorded on 11 days with the thermometer registering a very hard frost on the morning of the 3rd with a low of -11.3C.
Although the end of the month was predominantly dry, it began with a number of very wet days that included much snow on the 1st. Two days, the 1st and 5th, produced a daily precipitation of 9.7mm. The precipitation for the month registered 65.3mm, which was just 0.4mm above the 35-year average. There were 16 dry days. There was 50% coverage of snow on the ground from the 1st to the 4th.
The barometric pressure began to rise on the 19th, with the centre settling over the continent. This brought a succession of 9 dry days and with the wind coming from the south carrying very warm air from around the Canary Islands, temperatures rose as we enjoyed several days of wall-to-wall sunshine. On four days we enjoyed a daily total of almost 10 hours. The monthly total for sunshine was 163 hours.
Fog occurred during the early morning on five days with visibility restricted to 100m on the 14th and 23rd.
Winter 2018-19
We have just enjoyed a warm winter with a mean temperature of 4.89C, which was 0.6C above the 35-year average. The winter of 2015 was the warmest since my records began in 1984 with a mean of 6.4C. By contrast, the coldest winter since that date was in 2009 with a mean of just 2.03C.
Precipitation for the three months totalled 222mm, which was 25mm below the 34-year average and the driest for five years. The extremes were in 2013 with 528mm and 1991 with just 94mm. The last three winters have shown a deficit over the average of 119mm.
Update on Saturday at 16.20: another mild, dry day as the temperature peaked at 12.7C although southwesterly wind picked up during the afternoon with a maximum gust of 25mph, the strongest gust for almost a month.
