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full screen London was hot, gray and wet in February. Archive image. Photo: Alastair Grant/AP/TT
The month of February was the warmest ever recorded in England and Wales, reports the British Meteorological Institute Met Office.
In England, an average of 7.5 degrees was measured, against the previous highest record of 7.0 in 1990. The average temperature in Wales during the month was 6.9 degrees.
For the UK as a whole, February 2024 was the second warmest second month in a year, 6.3 degrees being marginally warmer than 1998 figures.
The warm weather has not meant nice days, with large parts of the island nation recording high rainfall figures – southern England has not seen a wetter February since records began in 1836. In several places, double the amount of rain was recorded compared to the average of the last 100 years.
“The main theme for February has been how consistently mild and wet it has been, particularly in the south, which is mainly due to low pressure over the Atlantic,” writes the Met Office in its report.