February 2013 was colder than average with below average rainfall and average winds. A block of high pressure over Scandinavia kept temperature around freezing for the second half of the month, with very little sunshine.
The average temperature for the month was 2.5°C, 1.1°C below the average. This was 0.5°C lower than the January 2013 average temperature, but 0.4°C above the all-time February low set in 2010. The highest temperature recorded in the month was 10.4°C on the 19th at 15:08, with the lowest being -2.0°C on the 13th at 03:57. The low equalled the previous highest minimum temperature set in 2011. There were 66.5 hours of sunshine, making it the sunniest month since October 2012, although most of this was in the first half of the month. There were 14 frost days – a record for February. The average daily maximum temperature was 5.1°C, and the average daily minimum temperature was 0.1°C.
Precipitation for the month was 25.6 millimetres, with 12.0 millimetres of this falling on the 10th. This was the driest month since March 2012, during which 20.4 millimetres were recorded. Snow was recorded on four days amounting to a total of 13.2 centimteres. Six centimetres fell on the 13th and 5.5 centimetres on the 11th. On the 13th, there were 9.0 centimteres of lying snow. Evapotranspiration for the month was 16.7 millimetres, the highest since October 2012.
Winds in the month were normal with an average wind speed of 4.6 mph. The average gust speed was 7.5 mph. A gust of 40.3 mph was recorded from 315 °(NW) on the 4th at 12:32, making this the equal strongest gust of the year so far. The maximum wind speed was 26.5 mph from 315° (NW) also on the 4th at 12:33. The total windrun for the month was 2858.2 miles.
The average barometric pressure for the month was 1017.3 millibars, with the maximum being 1037.4 millibars on the 26th at 21:42. The minimum pressure recorded was 989.3 mb on the 5th at 18:50.
Related articles
- Weather review – January 2013 (alanrowley.info)
- A very average winter (alanrowley.info)
- Australian summer breaks all the records (stuff.co.nz)
