You won’t need telling that it’s been a wet month. We came close to breaking our February record, but it’s ended up being the second wettest in our 40 years of weather data. The total was 103.0mm, which is well over twice the average for February of 45.0mm. It rained on 20 days, which equals the third highest number of days, and the wettest day on 5th at 21.87mm was the fifth wettest February day. And this is after last year being our driest ever February!

The temperatures were even more extreme. It’s been widely reported that it was a record February across the country for mild temperatures, and in Epping the overall mean temperature for the month at 8.3°C was our record by an astonishing margin of half a degree. Our average daily maximum (11.5°C) and our average daily minimum (5.5°C) were also records. The warmest day of the month at 17.2°C on the 15th was the third warmest February day in our records, and the coolest night at -0.2°C was also the third highest monthly minimum. We had two nights of frost when the temperature dipped below freezing – just!

This warm wet weather was the result of an almost endless stream of depressions crossing the country. The lowest pressure of 974.0 hPa was the lowest for February in our more limited records covering 16 years, and the average for the month of 1008.5 hPa was also the lowest on record by some margin. However, there were no named storms in February, and the highest gust recorded in the month of 30mph (Force 6) was below our average.

So, February 2024 was the sixth month in a row that was both wetter and warmer than the long term average. Don’t bet on this trend being broken in March!

Measure	Unit	Minimum	Average	Maximum	Average min	Average max	Total
Relative humidity	%	65	86	95
Temperature	°C	-0.2	8.3	17.2	5.5	11.5
Wind source (most common/highest gust)	Sector		N	WSW
Wind speed	mph		3.7	30		19.5
Rain daily accumulation	mm		3.6	21.8			103
Barometric pressure	hPa	974	1008.5	1033.6
Solar irradiance during daylight	W/m²		107	592		335
Sunshine (sunny if irradiance > 120 W/m2)	Hours		3.3	7.0			95