Submitted by Bill Caulfeild-Browne
On the face of it, it was a normal month with a mean temperature of -6.4C, just 0.3C above the long-term history. This was only unusual in that most Februaries in recent years have been well above normal, in keeping with the Global Circulation Models’ predictions for climate change.
But the mean hides what was going on. The lowest the mercury shrank to was -19.9C which is not as cold as the month used to get in the last century. We are seeing lows not quite as low and highs not as high – the average stays much the same. The highest the mercury stretched to was 4.4C on the 16th.
The main characteristic of the month was the freeze/thaw cycles, as I’m sure anybody walking or driving will have noticed. We’d get a few days just above freezing and things would start to thaw, only to freeze solid again. It never stayed above freezing for more than a few hours and never stayed below freezing for more than a few days. Serious ice persists.
Precipitation was nearly all in the form of snow with a little freezing rain thrown in for good measure on the 25th. Total moisture amounted to 31 mm. which is a bit drier than normal for the last twenty years but a lot drier than the 54 mm. of the last century. Another example of how our climate is changing.
Winds were highly variable too. There’d be ice as far as the eye could see one day, then after a night of southerly blows, the ice would vanish – or more accurately, get blown over towards Killarney. The next day it would all be back again.
As I write this the only sign of Spring is that the days are demonstrably longer and the sun higher in the sky each day. But it is coming!
