View from the Rear Window - February 2022

 January 2022 was warm and February continued along the same lines. See here, here, here and here. Indeed it has been a warm winter overall and, as a consequence, this wallflower has never stopped flowering over the winter months (Dec - Feb inclusive) ...

Of course, the main feature of the month was the three storms (Dudley, Eunice and Franklin) over the 7-day period from 16th to 22nd February. Our sheltered town garden experienced average wind speeds of 11 km/h (gentle to moderate breeze) and gusts up to 66 km/h (gale) over the week. This is a rare event since typical monthly average winds are in the range 3-5 km/h (light air) with gusts up to 45 km/h (strong wind).

The month of February started bright enough with a lovely sunny day. The sunlight giving the last blooms of the winter-flowering cherry an almost cloud-like appearance ...

The next picture shows the garden on the 19th February, in the 'lull between Storms Eunice and Franklin. The daffodils on the patio table had been moved to a less windy position on the floor before Eunice arrived and I had to pick up one of the small Xmas trees on the patio which had blown over. Otherwise, we escaped lightly...

On the last day of February, Mary wisely chose the morning to do some tidying up in the garden before the rain came at 2 pm...

Jobs in the Garden

1. Composting continues ad infinitum. The first lot of freshly-mown grass arrives to supercharge the hot bins

2. Finish pruning grapevines, pear and redcurrant and blackcurrant

3. Finish repotting wall strawberries. Some had become weedbound and others had died. After tidying up...

...there were still a few gaps. Fortunately, I managed to rescue a few dormant runners to revive in our heated Hydropod propagator ...

4. Plant out the newly-arrived bareroot raspberries - three each of Autumn Bliss, Glen Ample and Glen Prosen

5.  Lay seed potatoes (Blue Danube) out on shredded card to chit

6. Lots of general pruning and tidying up in the 'flower' garden

7. Still harvesting kale, broccoli, chard and spinach from the garden. Stored onions and potatoes still going strong!

February 2022 Weather

A summary of key weather parameters for February 2022 is presented in the table. Note: the minimum barometric pressure on the 18th coincided with the arrival of Storm Eunice.

February 2022
Weather Parameter	Value	Dates
Average Monthly Temperature	8 oC
Maximum Monthly Temperature	18 oC	16th
Minimum Monthly Temperature	-2 oC	11th
Number of Air Frost Days	1
Number of Hot Days (> 25 oC)	0
Monthly Precipitation	66.8 mm
Greatest 24 h Precipitation	11.4 mm	20th - 21st
Number of Dry Days	11
Monthly Sunshine Hours (estimated)	59
Average Wind Speed	7 km/h
Highest Wind Speed	66 km/h	21st
Maximum Barometric Pressure (Sea Level)	1033.6 hPa	11th
Minimum Barometric Pressure (Sea Level)	977.6 hPa	18th
Average Barometric Pressure (Sea Level)	1025.3 hPa

The bar chart below shows the daily minumum and maximum temperatures throughout February. Daytime temperatures were remarkably constant over the whole month while nighttime temperatures stayed in positive territory except for the one night (11th). The temperature range and distribution was quite different to that observed in January. According to a recent scientific paper, high February temperatures have the strongest effect on inducing early flowering in plants and trees - so it will be interesting to see how this pans out in the months ahead.

The next bar graph plots the daily rainfall (blue) and solar radiation (orange) values for February. There were more rainy days (60%) than dry days (40%) with two-thirds of the monthly precipitation occurring between 13th and 22nd. The high ratio of rainy days meant some periods of low solar radiation (sunshine) although you can see the generally increasing trend as the days lengthen.

Finally, how does February 2022 compare with 2021 and 2020? Temperature-wise, this February was significantly warmer than the previous two years with a much higher maximum temperature and being almost frost-free.

February 2020 is looking like an outlier in terms of rainfall whereas the sunshine hours, number of dry days and maximum wind speeds are similar for all three years.