A Rare 'Since Records Began'.

After 20 years of noting the daily weather, it becomes increasingly rare for new records to appear. Yesterday was one of those record-breaking days. The rainfall total, 22.0mm, beat the existing February record, set on the 24th in 2000, when 21.1mm fell. High daily rainfall during February is quite unusual, and in this area a total of 20mm appears to have been exceeded on only 3 more occasions. Namely, in the years

1925, 1933 and 1951. The wettest day was the 13th February 1925 when between 25 and 30mm of rain fell locally. Of interest, but not statistically significant so early in the month, a wet February in this area, with rainfall over 70mm, has only been accompanied by a cold February, with a mean temperature below 4.0 C, on one occasion since 1890, and that was in 1900! Another 18mm is needed to keep the rainfall part of the record at this site, and with a mean temperature of 1.3C, some mild days (and nights) are needed to spoil the other half of the potentially record-breaking equation.