In folk-lore there’s an old phrase “February fill-dyke”, believed to refer to the filling of ditches by all the melting snow or rain during the month, writes Simon Ratsey. This rarely applies in our region, where February’s average rainfall is about the same as September’s, and only April claims a larger share of all the driest months on record in England.

February 2023 began where January left off, high air pressure over France maintaining a gentle flow of air from the west. It was mostly cloudy with some drizzle early and late on both February 2 and 3, but also very mild for the time of year. The centre of the anticyclone then drifted northwards to rest over the British Isles, February 5 – 10 being a calm and unusually sunny spell of weather. Daytime temperatures were still above average, but the clear night skies resulted in some hard frosts, with a minimum in Wellington of minus 4.3C (24.3F) on the night of February 7/8.

As the high pressure then drifted eastwards, our region again found itself bathed with very warm air, this time arriving from the south. After a couple of dull days, the sun returned on February 13, while Valentine’s Day was almost springlike, with blue skies and a maximum temperature above 13C (55.4F) for the first time this year. The next day was milder still, but the weather pattern was changing, with a weak warm front bringing the month’s first measurable rain to fall in Wellington. This brought to an end a thirty-day period with only 3mm of rain, all the more remarkable in view of the record-breaking wet spell that had immediately preceded it.

Thanks to the southerly breeze, February 17 was the warmest day of the month with a notable maximum temperature of 14C (57.2F) in Wellington. This came after a night that was exceptionally mild for the time of year, with a minimum of 10C (50F). Temperatures stayed consistently well above average for several more days, giving one of our warmest February weeks on record, but it was generally cloudy with showery rain or drizzle from time to time. The month’s heaviest rainfall was a mere 5mm (0.2 inches), arriving after dark on February 21.

The last week of the month saw temperatures slip below average, with an anticyclone centred to the west of Scotland giving us a light breeze from the north-east. Even so, the month’s coldest day, February 25, with a maximum in Wellington of 6.5C (43.7F), was not really cold for February. It remained rather cloudy, February 26 being the stand-out day with almost unbroken sunshine, followed by a very clear night with quite a sharp frost. Further sunshine in the last two days helped to make the month overall slightly sunnier than average.

Until the final week, February 2023 was lining up to be one of the warmest ever. In the end, the mean temperature of 6.4C (43.5F) made it tenth-warmest in this area since 1960. The total rainfall of 10mm (0.4 inch) was just 14% of the average. Since 1960 we have had only ten months with less rain, July 2022 being the driest of all. Two of the others were the Februarys of 1965 and 1986 – both notably cold. For February to be so dry and so mild seems to be unprecedented.

Simon Ratsey (WWN Weather Correspondent)