On average, February is the driest of the three winter months, more often than not including at least a week of fine weather, usually cold and frosty. Little about the February just ended could be described as average.

February 1 was okay for the time of year, with good spells of sunshine. Rain arrived that night, the following day being breezy and damp. According to folklore, the weather on February 2 – ‘Groundhog Day’ in the USA – indicates what can be expected for the rest of the winter. Things changed as high pressure moved in to give a dry spell, with sunshine on February 5 and 6, but the improvement was short-lived.

After a chilly, foggy start, February 7 saw the wind picking up from the south-west, heralding a very unsettled period. With the upper atmosphere jet stream reportedly reaching near-record velocities, a series of storms surged across the Atlantic to affect the British Isles in a manner rarely experienced in late winter. First came Storm Ciara, during the weekend of February 8 and 9, with heavy rain and a gale from the south-west that felled trees. February 9 was the month’s warmest day, the temperature reaching 13C (55F), but the next day was truly nasty, still windy but colder with hail showers.

There was then a brief lull, February 12 being mostly very sunny, but that night the gales returned with heavy rain. Many people sleeping were woken in the small hours by a sudden screaming wind, followed by a clap or two of thunder. This was an example of a fairly rare phenomenon known as a ‘line squall’, occurring on an active cold front. Some 25mm (one inch) of rain was recorded in Wellington – a lot for one night, in February.

Storm Dennis then arrived to batter us over the weekend of February 15 and 16, delivering in all over 30mm (1.2 inches) of rain in Wellington, with a sustained gale from the south-west. It remained windy during the following week, with showers or longer spells of rain, although February 21 and 22 were dry enough for lawnmowers to be heard in action around the town.

For the final week of the month, polar air prevailed, giving spells of rain, hail and sleet, with snow lying briefly on the highest hilltops around us. February 26 and 27 offered us plenty of sunshine, its benefits offset by the chilly breeze. Gales and rain returned with Storm Jorge to end the month. With some wintery showers thrown in for good measure, this added 30mm to the rainfall total.

In spite of the late colder spell, it ended up as the third warmest February on record in this area, and for the first time ever totally free of air frost. The month’s mean temperature of 7.1C (44.8F) is above average for March, accounting for the many signs of spring in our gardens and hedgerows. The total rainfall in Wellington of 179mm (seven inches) was 220 per cent of average but well below the record set in 2014. The total winter rainfall of 458mm (18 inches) was the seventh highest in the past 60 years, though in terms of rain days it was second wettest after 2013/14 with 68 days receiving measurable rainfall since the start of December.

Simon Ratsey

WWN weather correspondent