THOSE who were pleased to reach the end of last month had valid reasons to say “good riddance” – Jersey endured the dullest February for 27 years, with almost twice the average monthly dose of rainfall.
Provisional figures released by Jersey Met on Friday 1 March showed a total of 139.7 millimetres of rain during February, compared with the 30-year average figure of 78.4mm and the all-time record – dating from 1957 – of 170.55mm.
A total of seven sunless days were recorded across a month which had just 65 hours of sunshine, the lowest figure since 1997 and well below the 102.6 average.
February was also the mildest on record, with the average temperature of 9.6°C being 2.6°C above the average figure between 1991 and 2020.
Mild weather was a feature of the three-month winter period encompassing December, January and February. Data shows it was the third-warmest on record, while total rainfall was around 20% above average and winter sunshine (240 hours) was on a par with the average figure.
The extreme figures from winter 2023/24 saw a high temperature of 14°C on Valentine’s Day and 24.7mm of rain on 25 February, while the coldest temperature was -1.4°C on 10 January, the day after snowfall of 3–5cm.
Unsettled weather looks set to continue across the weekend and during the early part of next week, with several low-pressure systems bringing showery, windy weather until Tuesday afternoon, when high pressure is anticipated. Duty forecaster Martin Nduta said: “We’re into spring now, and Wednesday [6 March] should feel like the first day of spring, with sunshine and less wind.”
