Weather watch February 2020

We had a varied month which brought about wet and windy conditions along with some mild weather.

The UK’s first storm was named by the Irish Met Office and fortunately, the region’s power network coped well in testing conditions. 

We’re in the thrust of winter and as always, we encourage all our customers to be winter ready by keeping an eye on the weather and looking out for neighbours and loved ones. Remember, if you find yourself without power you can call your network operator by calling 105.

A look back at January’s weather

January was certainly a varied month with periods of cloudy, wet and windy weather, interspersed with occasional drier and calmer intervals.

The first half of the month saw plenty of wet and windy conditions and on January 13^th, the Irish Met Office named ‘Storm Brendan’ which passed the UK and brought wind gusts of over 60mph to the most exposed parts of North West England.

The second half of the month was more variable with spells of wet and windy weather as well as drier and calmer spells.

An interesting statistic, January, the middle of winter, was unusually mild with temperatures climbing to between 12 and 14 Celsius and only a few frosty nights.

In fact, after a chilly start on New Year’s Day, North West England didn’t see a frost again until the night of the 9^th January, when temperatures across Cumbria and parts of Lancashire dropped to around -2 Celsius.

There were only a few more colder nights for the month and rainfall was around average.

A look ahead to February

We can expect a couple of chilly days and cold nights during the first week of February.

After that, we’ll see a return to the milder temperatures brought about by winds from westerly or south-westerly winds coming off the north Atlantic.

However, as we often see at this time of year, the mild weather will be accompanied by some wet and windy weather, too!

The second weekend of February, forecasters are predicting stormy conditions leading into the following week. Wind gusts could top 60mph while there’s a chance of heavy rainfall and localised flooding.

Between the bands of rain, short colder interludes are possible, with showers containing sleet, hail and perhaps even some snow over the high Fells.

Weather should quieten down during the final third of February with similar conditions expected as to what we saw at the start of the month.