Royston (Iceni) Weather Station

Daily Weather Observations - February 2006

February was a little colder and a little drier than normal in Royston, but sunshine was near average.

For the 4^th consecutive month the mean temperature was below average, an unusual sequence given the high number of warmer than average months in the last 10 years. However, none of the months November 2005 to February 2006 has been really cold, just marginally below average in each case. It was the coldest February since 1996.

The mean daily maximum temperature in February was 6.5°C, which is 0.7°C below the 30 Year (1976/2005) average, whilst the mean night minimum temperature was 0.2°C below average at 1.6°C.

The highest temperature recorded in the month was 11.4°C on 15^th. This was the lowest absolute daily maximum temperature recorded in February since 1993. In contrast, the lowest day maximum temperature was –1.5°C on 2^nd. This was the first occurrence in any month of the day maximum temperature failing to reach 0°C since 29^th December 2000.

The lowest night minimum temperature in February was –3.0°C on 3^rd. The highest night minimum temperature in the month was 7.9°C on 13^th. The lowest grass minimum temperature was –5.8°C on 10^th. Eleven air frosts and 15 ground frosts were recorded in February. Air frost duration in the month was 76.5 hours.

The mean earth temperature at 30 cms depth as recorded at 0900 GMT daily was 4.3°C. The highest and lowest earth temperature values recorded in February were 5.9°C and 3.0°C on 3^rd (and 4^th) and 15^th respectively.

For the 3^rd year in the last 4 years February was a drier than average month, but not as dry as in January and December (see note below about Winter 2005/2006 rainfall). Total rainfall was 31.9 millimetres, which is 91% of the 1971/2000 average for Royston.

The wettest day in February was 14^th with 6.6 millimetres rainfall. The number of "rain days" (0.2 millimetres or more) was 11, whilst on 8 of these days rainfall exceeded 1 millimetre. Rainfall duration in February was 35.4 hours. Although snow was observed to fall on 5 days in February it was essentially a snow free month with only 1 day (23^rd) having a light snow cover at 0900 GMT. This snow quickly disappeared during the day.

As in the previous month, February suffered an exceptionally dull start to the month with only 2.6 hours sunshine being recorded in the first week. However, by the end of the month the sunshine total of 75.2 hours had exceeded the 1971/2000 average by 4%. The sunniest day in February was 25^th with 9.2 hours sunshine. The number of completely sunless days in the month was very high at 11. It was the sunniest February since 2003 only.

February was a relatively calm month with the mean wind speed being 2.9 mph and the highest gust speed being 48 mph on 15^th. The highest daily (00/00 GMT) mean wind speed in the month was 9.6 mph on 15^th and the lowest daily mean wind speed was 0.0 mph (to nearest 1 decimal place) on 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th. On 2^nd the maximum gust speed was only 2 mph, and only 7 mph on each of the other 3 days in this period.

The analysis of wind directions as observed at 0900 GMT daily was as follows: NORTH 1 day, NE 6, E 1, SE 0, S 3, SW 4, W 5, NW 5, and CALM 3.

The mean MSL air pressure in February was 1014.8 mB, which is 1 mB below average. The highest and lowest air pressure values recorded in the month were 1034 mB and 978 mB on 5^th and 17^th respectively.

The mean relative humidity in February was 87.0%, with a highest daily (00/00 GMT) mean value of 96.4% on 12^th and a lowest daily mean value of 75.0% on 9^th. The absolute lowest relative humidity reading in February was 47% at 1450 GMT on 28^th.

Fog (visibility < 1000 metres at 0900 GMT) was not observed on any day in February.

To conclude this report a few summary details for WINTER (December/February) 2005/2006 are given. The mean daily maximum temperature in Winter was 6.6°C (-0.4), the mean night minimum temperature was 2.1°C (-0.2), rainfall was 71.3 millimetres (51%) and sunshine was 233.0 hours (133%). As can be seen it was a very sunny and very dry Winter, the driest since 1991/2. Although the mean temperature was only marginally below average it was nonetheless the coldest Winter since 1996/1997 (illustrating the mild nature of recent Winters).

Met Observer, Royston (Iceni) Weather Station

4^th March 2006

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