Climate summaries

Overview of weather across the UK for previous months, seasons and years

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UK last month

February 2021

The first five days of February were mild in the south, cold in the north, and unsettled, followed by a very cold easterly spell with heavy snowfalls in some areas, and extremely low temperatures on the early morning of the 11th. It turned much milder for the second half of the month, and wetter in most areas with frequent strong winds, before a quieter anticyclonic spell arrived for the last few days.

The provisional UK mean temperature was 4.1 °C, which is 0.4 °C above the 1981-2010 long-term average, with the milder second half more than making up for the earlier cold spell. Both mean maximum and minimum temperatures were slightly below average over parts of Scotland, but around 1.0 °C above in Northern Ireland and most of southern Britain. It was another rather wet month, with rainfall 116% of average overall, and some parts of eastern/south-east Scotland, north-east England, and south Wales had twice the normal amount, but it was again drier than average over northern Scotland. Sunshine was 103% of average, but rather below average in southern and western areas, with the far north of Scotland well above average.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows: A maximum temperature of 18.4 °C was recorded at Santon Downham (Suffolk) on the 24th. A minimum temperature of -23.0 °C was recorded at Braemar (Aberdeenshire) on the 11th. In the 24 hours ending at 0900 GMT on the 24th, 125.8 mm of rain fell at Honister Pass (Cumbria). A wind gust of 72 knots (83 mph) was recorded at South Uist (Western Isles) on the 14th. A snow depth of 38 cm was recorded at Aboyne (Aberdeenshire) on the 10th.

Regional values for February 2021