February - the name can be traced back to Februa, the Roman festival of purification.
According to the UK Met Office, we have just had the warmest February on record for England and Wales, despite high rainfall and low sunshine levels. Globally, February 2024 was also the warmest February on record.
Just one photo of the back garden this month - taken in mid-February - showing bare trees and before the spring bulbs start to add colour.
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| Photo 1: Back Garden in mid-February 2024 |
The rest of the daily photos are collated in the timelapse video (Video 1) below:
Video 1: Daily Garden Photos (February 2024)
Average weather parameters for Hereford are summarised in the Table below. Warm, wet and dreary!!
Daytime temperatures were warm for this time of the year and we only saw subzero night-time temperatures towards the end of the month.
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| Figure 1: Min/Max Daily Temperatures (February 2024) |
There were five days with heavy rain (> 5 mm) and no rain on nearly half (13/29) of the days. Sunny days were at a premium but at least the cloudy nights kept the frosts away.
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| Figure 2: Daily Rainfall & Sunshine (February 2024) |
February temperature data for the last 5 years are summarised in Figure 3. While five years is too short a period to confirm any trends in weather parameters, the data suggests the daily means, daytime maximums and night-time minimums are all getting warmer.
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| Figure 3: February Temperature Data for the 2020 - 2024 Period |
This warming trend can also be seen in the mean February temperatures for the whole of the UK courtesy of the Met Office - the 2020 - 2024 period is indicated by the red crosses on the rhs of the plot.
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| Figure 4: Met Office Graph Showing Mean UK Temperatures for February |
In Figure 5, monthly rainfall and sunshine data for the last five Januarys are displayed. According to the nearby Credenhill Met Office weather station, rainfall in Hereford is around 51 mm for the month of February (based on the 1991-2020 average). So, February 2024 has definitely seen above average rain in these parts. Sunshine is below par, possibly part of a trend. It may not be a coincidence that the two warmest Februarys in Hereford over the last five years have seen above average rain and below average sunshine.
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| Figure 5: February Rain/Sun/Wind Data for the 2020 - 2024 Period |
The following figures come from the UK Met Office's February 2024 Report. I've marked the location of Herefordshire on all three maps. Herefordshire, along with most of England below a line drawn from Middlesborough to Llanelli, was very warm. The rest of the UK was just warm!
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| Figure 6: UK Mean Temperature Anomalies (February 2024) |
The bits of the country that were very warm (Figure 6) were also rather wet (Figure 7), including Hereford, ...
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| Figure 7: UK Rainfall Distribution for February 2024 |
... and with a distinct lack of sunshine (Figure 8).
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| Figure 8: UK Sunshine Distribution (February 2024) |
Jobs in the Garden
- Another quiet month
- Hot composting ad infinitum
- Picked the last celeriac (about 1 kg) from 2023 season - made soup
- Pruned the Rev Wilks and Golden Delicious apple trees, the Nottingham medlar tree, the Concorde pear tree and the Whinham's Industry gooseberry bush
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| Photo 2: From L to R, Medlar, Rev Wilks and Golden Delicious before pruning |
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| Photo 3: After Pruning |
Flora & Fauna (in the Garden)
- 2 x Blackbirds (male & female)
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| Photo 4: Blackbird |
- 4 x Blue Tits
- 2 x Collared Doves
- 1 x Crow
- 1 x Great Tit
- 11 x House Sparrows
- 1 x Herring Gull
- 2 x Magpie
- 1 x Robin
- 15 x Starlings
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| Photo 5: Starling on Feeder |
- 5 x Wood Pigeons
- Buff-tailed Bumblebees (numerous)
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| Photo 4: Buff-tailed Bumblebee on South Facing Wall |
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