It was a cold and dry February in Royston, but with near normal sunshine.

The highest temperature achieved in February was only 10.0°C (on 4^th, 15^th and 28^th) and this was the lowest absolute maximum temperature in February since the exceptionally severe February in 1986. On the other hand no really low temperatures occurred in the month, the lowest being –2.4°C on 19^th.

The mean daily maximum temperature in February was 5.8°C, which is 1.6°C below average. The mean night minimum temperature was 1.4°C below average at 0.6°C. Overall it was the coldest February in Royston since 1996.

The number of air frosts recorded in February was 9, and air frost duration was 78.5 hours (compared with 226.0 hours in January). The number of ground frosts in the month was 20, and this was the highest number of ground frosts recorded in February since 1991.

The highest night minimum temperature in the month was 6.5°C on 4^th; in contrast the lowest day maximum temperature was 0.9°C on 11^th.

The mean earth temperature at 30 cms depth as observed at 0900 GMT daily was 3.9°C, which is 0.6°C below average. The earth temperature peaked at 5.4°C on 1^st and fell to a low of 3.1°C on 23^rd and 25^th.

After the very wet year 2012 much drier conditions have set in this year and a dry February followed the drier than normal January. Total rainfall in February was 26.5 millimetres, which is only 69% of average. It was the 3^rd consecutive drier than normal February.

The number of "rain days" (0.2 millimetres or more) in the month was 14, whilst on 6 of these days rainfall exceeded 1.0 millimetre. The wettest day of the month was 10^th with rainfall of 9.4 millimetres.

Although snowfall was a relatively minor feature of the February weather, snow was nonetheless observed to fall on 7 days, mostly in small amounts. However, snowfall on 10^th/11^th was sufficient to give a 4 cm level depth of snow at 0900 GMT on 11^th. This depth reduced to 2 cms by 0900 GMT on 12^th and the lying snow had all but disappeared by 13^th.

Total rainfall for January and February combined was 71.9 millimetres, which is 80% of normal.

A very dull period occurred from 21^st to 26^th inclusive when only 3 minutes sunshine was recorded over this 6 day period. Two relatively sunny days on 27^th and 28^th then brought the necessarily depleted sunshine total for the month up to 80.1 hours, and within 1% of normal.

The sunniest day of the month was 19^th with 9.3 hours sunshine. A total of 9 completely sunless days occurred in February.

The mean wind speed in the month was 6.4 mph and the maximum wind gust speed recorded was 40 mph on 4^th. The highest daily (00/00) GMT mean wind speed was 14.4 mph on 4^th, whilst the lowest daily mean wind speed was 2.4 mph on 19^th.

Wind directions were fairly evenly distributed this month with the normal prevailing SW wind direction in Royston managing only 2 days in February. The full analysis of wind directions as observed at 0900 GMT daily was NORTH 2 days, NE 7, E 2, SE 3, S 2, SW 2, W 6, NW 4 and CALM 0.

The mean MSL air pressure in February was 1017.1 mb, which is 1 mB above average. The highest and lowest air pressure values recorded in the month were 1035.6 mB and 991.0 mB on 26^th (and 27^th) and 5^th respectively.

The mean relative humidity in the month was 85.3%. The daily (00/00 GMT) mean relative humidity ranged from a high of 95.8% on both 10^th and 11^th to a low of 68.6% on 21^st. The absolute lowest relative humidity reading in February was 51% at 1240 GMT on 16^th.

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

The Winter weather did not break any longstanding records and it was the coldest Winter since 2010/2011 only, and the wettest Winter since 2009/2010 only.

The mean daily maximum temperature in Winter was 6.3°C, which is 0.8°C below average. The mean night minimum temperature was also 0.8°C below average at 1.7°C. Total rainfall in Winter was 169.6 millimetres, which is 121% of average. The Winter sunshine was just 2% below normal at 197.5 hours.

Met. Observer, Royston (Iceni) Weather Station

7^th March 2013