It was a colder, drier and sunnier than average February in Royston.

A cold, occasionally severe, spell set in on 29^th January and lasted until 12^th February. In complete contrast much of the remainder of February was very mild. This is illustrated by mean temperatures of –1.8°C and 7.3°C for the periods 1^st/12^th and 13^th/29^th respectively.

The lowest night minimum and grass minimum temperatures of –11.5°C and –15.3°C on 11^th were both the lowest recorded in February since at least 1972. On 23^rd the highest temperature of the month occurred and this was the highest temperature recorded in February since 1998.

The mean daily maximum temperature in February was 7.1°C, which is 0.3°C below average whilst the mean night minimum temperature was 1.1°C below average at 0.9°C. Overall it was the coldest February since 2010 only. Totals of 12 air frosts and 17 ground frosts were recorded in the month. Air frost duration was 200.3 hours.

Despite the low night minimum temperatures in the first half of February only 1 day (4^th) achieved a maximum temperature below 0°C, and then only slightly below at –0.3°C. At the other end of the scale the night minimum temperature on 23^rd was as high as 10.3°C.

The mean earth temperature at 30 cms depth as measured at 0900 GMT daily was 3.8°C, which is 0.7°C below average. The highest and lowest earth temperatures in the month were 7.4°C and 2.0°C on 29^th and (11^th/12^th/13^th) respectively.

As much as 72% of precipitation in February fell as snow, the largest snowfall occurring on 4^th/5^th giving a level depth of snow cover of 14 cm at 0900 GMT on 5^th. This converted to 13.0 millimetres rainfall, making 4^th the wettest day of the month.

With a minor ‘top-up’ snowfall on 9^th a complete snow cover lasted until 13^th, giving 9 days of snow cover in total. Snow actually fell on only 4 days, however. The number of "rain days" (0.2 millimetres or more ) was 9, with rainfall (or melted snow) exceeding 1.0 millimetre on 5 of these days. Total rainfall in February was 22.3 millimetres, which is only 58% of average. It was the driest February in Royston since 2008.

Despite 7 days in the month with no sunshine at all, 9 days with over 7 hours sunshine helped to raise the February sunshine total of 101.6 hours to 31% above the average. This made February the sunniest since 2008 and the 5^th February in the last 15 years to exceed the 100 hour threshold. The sunniest day in the month was 23^rd with 9.3 hours sunshine.

The mean wind speed in February was 6.0 mph. A maximum gust speed of 40 mph occurred on 18^th. The highest daily (00/00 GMT) mean wind speed was 14.1 mph on 22^nd and the lowest daily mean wind speed was 0.8 mph on 11^th.

Winds from the N-E quadrant hardly featured in February as the following analysis of wind directions as observed at 0900 GMT daily shows: NORTH 0 days, NE 4, E 0, SE 2, S 4, SW 8, W 5, NW 6 and CALM 0.

High pressure predominated in February and the mean MSL air pressure was 13 mB above average at 1028.9 mB. The highest pressure value recorded in the month was 1043.8 mB on 7^th, whilst the lowest pressure value was 1005.6 mB on 18^th.

The mean relative humidity in February was 85.0%. The highest daily (00/00 GMT) mean relative humidity in the month was 96.1% on 5^th whilst the lowest such daily mean was 70.2% on 20^th. The absolute lowest relative humidity reading in February was 44% at 1530 GMT on 19^th.

Fog (visibility < 1000 metres @ 0900 GMT) was observed on only 1 day in February. This was on 5^th over the fresh snow cover mentioned earlier in this report.

Although it was a generally mild winter the cold spell which started at the end of January and lasted until almost mid-February took its toll on the mean temperature and in the event it was the mildest February since 2007/8 only. The winter rainfall was not far off the average but a further deficit of rainfall, albeit relatively small, did nothing to ease the drought conditions which had been experienced in 2011. It was the driest winter since 2007/8.

The mean daily maximum temperature in winter was 8.2°C, which is 1.1°C above average. The mean night minimum temperature was 0.4°C above average at 2.9°C. Total rainfall in winter was 125.5 millimetres, which is 90% of average. The winter sunshine was 34% above average at 259.5 hours.

Met. Observer, Royston (Iceni) Weather Station

6^th March 2012