Met Office: England and Wales experience warmest February on record with rainfall record also broken

February 2024 was the mildest on record for England and Wales, according to the Met Office.

The meteorological service said that the average temperature in England for the last month was 7.5C. This beat the previous record, set in 1990, by 0.5C.

In Wales, the average temperature was 6.9C. This narrowly beat 1998's record of 6.8C. It was a particularly mild February across southern parts of the UK, with most of the 30 counties reporting their highest February mean temperature located in this region.

Met Office senior scientist Mike Kendon said: “February has perhaps been the quietest month of the winter, without any further named storms, whereas Gerrit in December and Henk and Isha in January all caused significant weather impacts.  

“Despite a cold spell in in the north in the first half of the month, the main theme of February is how persistently mild and wet it has been, particularly in the south and this is largely due to the influence of Atlantic low-pressure systems bringing a predominant mild, south-westerly flow. This mild, wet theme is also true of winter overall.” 

February also saw heavy rainfall across several regions. The south of England experienced its wettest February since records began in 1836, with some areas seeing over twice the average rainfall. East Anglia had its wettest and warmest February on record, with 10.64mm of rainfall and an average temperature of 8.2C.

The Met Office added that for England as a whole, it ranked as as the fourth wettest, with February 2020 continuing to be the wettest. The Met Office’s Mike Kendon continued: “The UK’s observations clearly show winters are getting warmer, and they are also getting wetter since as the atmosphere heats up, it has an increased capacity to hold moisture. The top-ten warmest winters on record for the UK include 2024, 2022, 2020, 2016 and 2014 and the top-ten wettest 2024, 2020, 2016 and 2014 – so very mild winters also show a tendency to be very wet.”