While rainfall records for England and Wales since 1776 have been broken with the wettest Winter ever, so too have rainfall records been smashed at the Marlborough weather station set up in 1984 by Eric Gilbert.
Today (Saturday), the first official day of Spring, he reports that records tumbled in a month that produced many extremes of weather and produced similarities with the year 1990.
A record for the wettest day was broken on February 6 with a total of 28.9mm of rain. And it was also the wettest February he has recorded with a total of 151.6mm of rain.
“That is 242 per cent of the 30-year average and just broke the previous record of 151.0mm set in 1990,” he told Marlborough News Online. “We also experienced a record number of 21 wet days, breaking the record of 18 set in the year 2000.
“And a record was set for the lowest barometric pressure on the February 14 with a reading of 971mb. Associated with the frequent depressions were many days with winds exceeding 40mph with a maximum of 54mph on the 14th and a record gust of 55mph that occurred on February 12.”
The mean temperature for February was 5.7°C, which is 1.6°C above the 30-year average. The warmest day occurred on the 20th with a maximum of 11.4°C.
“Another outstanding feature, due to the succession of depressions crossing the country, was the lack of any air frost, another record that equalled the year 1990,” added Eric.
“An analysis of the occurrence of air frosts since 1985 provides interesting statistics.
“Taking five-year groupings since 1985 (e.g.1985-1989) and so on until 2005-2009, I find that the average for these indicates a distinct trend. The last air frost in Spring, on average, has moved consistently backwards from May 14 to April 20.
“A similar trend has occurred, using the same five-year groupings, for the first air frost in autumn. The date for the first air frost has moved onwards from an average in the 1985 group of September 29 to as late as October 26 for the 2005-2009 set.”
Although the hours of sunlight were only just above the average for recent years, the total for solar energy was 14 per cent higher.
Looking at the past Winter overall, Eric points out that it was a mild one with a mean temperature of 5.5°C some 1.4°C above the 30-year average.
It was the warmest since 2006 although the record for the mildest winter was set in 1988 with a mean of 6.2°C.
“It is not surprising that there were many fewer air frosts, just 13 in total, when the average is 34 for the three months,” said Eric. “This is not quite a record as the lowest number of air frosts was set in 1989 with only eight occurrences.”
The total winter rainfall of 527.7mm was a record. This is 218 per cent of the 30-year average, which is an excess of 286mm.
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