Weather review – February 2015

February 2015 was cooler and sunnier than average. Rainfall and snowfall were both less than average and winds were lighter than normal. This was also the first month since August 2014 to record below average temperatures.

The warmest day was reserved for the last day when the temperature reached 10.1°C at 13:00. The lowest temperature recorded was -3.5°C at 02:54 on the 2nd, the lowest since -3.7°C was recorded on March 14th 2013. The average temperature for the month was 3.5°C, 0.4°C lower than the mean for February. The average daily maximum was 6.3°C, 0.2°C below the mean, and the average daily minimum was 0.9°C, 0.5°C below the mean. The mean for February is now 3.9°C. Only January (3.6°C) and December (3.8°C) are lower. The average dew point was 1.5°C. There were 65.4 sunshine hours in the month, 2.7 hours more than 2014. On the 15th, the solar UV index of 1.0 surpassed the yearly high of 0.8 set on February 6th by 0.2. This is the first time the UV index reached 1.0 since October 31st 2014.

Rainfall for the month totalled 27.6 millimetres, recorded on 13 days, 8.5 millimetres lower than the February average. This was the least number of rain days recorded in February. The wettest day was the 22nd when 9.6 millimetres was recorded making it the wettest day since November 8th 2014. Snow fell only on the 2nd and 3rd when a light dusting fell on each day. Evapotranspiration for the month was 16.0 millimetres, the lowest so far recorded in February.

February’s winds were lighter than usual with the average wind speed being 4.2 mph, 0.9 mph lower than average. The average gust speed was 6.1 mph. The maximum wind speed was 20.7 mph from 270° (W) on the 28th at 00:00, with the average maximum wind speed being 17.9 mph. The maximum gust speed was 29.9 mph from 293° (WNW) on the 24th at 12:14. The total wind run was 2557.5 miles and the main direction was west-south-westerly.

The highest barometer reading was 1039.7 millibars, recorded at 08:27 on the 8th. This surpassed the yearly high of 1039.0 millibars by 0.7 millibars. The lowest pressure was 983.9 millibars on the 23rd at 18:29 The average pressure for the month was 1015.2 millibars. The average humidity was 88%.

Weather Underground graph for February 2015