Sunday, 23 February 2020
Wind & Rain Goes On And On
The wind and rain goes on and on and on. There seems to be no let up at all. Just for a change, we didn’t have a named storm for this weekend but that didn’t mean it wasn’t wet and windy, far from it. In fact the readings from my weather station suggest we had higher wind speeds on Saturday than we did for either storm Ciara or Dennis.
Rainfall, High Wind Speeds & Temperature Records for February 2020
Individual gust speeds reached 34mph on Saturday moving them into my list of highest gust speeds. Indicating that it was windy all day, the average wind speed for Saturday was 8.8mph getting into sixth place in my top twenty list.
Wind Speed Records 2010-Date
This means that with the strongest wind gust speeds of the year, we had no type of Met Office weather warning and no named storm. This February is rewriting my windiest day tables.
Of course it's not been only the wind but the associated rainfall this month that's breaking records. It’s been wet enough over the last week to move this February’s rainfall total up from third place into top spot in my table of wettest months since I began keeping records ten years ago.
Wettest Months 2010 - Date
Based on the last 10 years the average rainfall for February is 40mm (1.6in) so this year we are three times above what we might expect. There's no wonder that there is lots of flooding around.
There is still more rain forecast before the month is out and the output from the weather models suggest it will be little different as we move into March and the beginning of meteorological spring.
This squirrel knew where to come to find some dry peanuts and sunflower hearts. He was probably checking out that supplies were adequate in case we get any of the snow which is forecast for parts of Yorkshire on Monday morning.
Friday, 28 February 2020
More Wet Weather - Four Times Average February Rainfall!
Just for a change this month Friday turned out to be another wet day. During the course of today's rain, this year's February total surpassed four times our 10 year average for the month of February.
February 2020 Rainfall Record
I'd have to say that over recent years February has been one of our drier months but that's definitely not the case this year.
Wettest Months 2010-2020
It's not a case of this month just making it into number one spot, it is the best part of an extra month's worth of rain ahead, and of course as it's a Leap Year there's an extra day to go. Storm Jorge is due to arrive tomorrow bringing more rain and gale force winds over the weekend.
Some of the rain this week fell as wet, sleety snow, but never in any great amounts and not enough to settle. Our squirrel has been putting in some regular appearances this week. It's normally around in the morning and it was looking particularly bedraggled in the pouring rain one morning.
Hopefully, March will bring some better weather.