Just 193.4 mm of rain fell during December, January and February – well below the 30-year average of 277.3 mm. Islanders also enjoyed 292.5 hours of sunshine, almost 58 hours more than would normally be seen during an average winter.
But the atmospheric set-up which brought the Island weeks of fine and dry weather was also the direct cause of the miserable winter in southern Europe which led to the much publicised vegetable and salad-crop failure.
Jersey’s winter sun was brought about by a succession of areas of high pressure, which fed in drier winds from the Continent and blocked rain-bearing areas of low pressure from moving in from the Atlantic.Instead, the storms were sent spinning north into Scotland or south over the usually dry areas of southern France and Spain.
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