Looking back at the main three winter months (December 2020 to February 2021) for the UK reveals a wet, dull season for most of us with near average temperatures. However, we find some regional differences and probably the most interesting month for weather was February.
February saw a wide temperature range with the first half of the month experiencing some bitterly cold easterlies originating from Russia, and then the influence of air coming from the Canary Islands towards the end. The lowest and highest temperatures of the winter season occurred in February, with -23.0C at Braemar in Aberdeenshire on 11 February and 18.4C at Santon Downham in Suffolk on 24 February.
Regarding the precipitation (rain, sleet, snow, hail combined), the Met Office map above showing the values as a percentage of average tells the story - the northwest of Scotland was dry but the east of Scotland and England were very wet,Tyne and Wear recorded its wettest winter on record, whileCambridgeshire, Norfolk and Rutland's winter season average rainfall all ranked as the second wettest.
March has started with a real mixed bag of weather; frost and fog but some mild sunny days - where the low cloud disperse - and it's also been very dry with light breezes. Some showers will break out across parts of Wales and England then we'll find an area of high pressure drifting down from the north. The 5th to 6th March will probably end up as the coldest part of the month with some chilly air bringing below average day and night time temperatures.
Then it's all change again as during the week commencing 8th March, as Atlantic air will return bringing spells of wet and windy weather. Temperatures during this time should be close to the seasonal average.
The MetDesk weather map on our main pageshows the average pattern expected by one of the weather models for the period 11th to 17th March. The area of low pressure is between Norway and Iceland and most of the isobars are concentrated across the south UK and mainland Europe. It's likely to be notably windy across Europe around the middle of the month and especially wet in France.
The last week or 10 days of the month should improve again with most days becoming drier and less windy, so the hope of some pleasant spring days on the horizon, but a wet interlude to come first.
So to summarise, a foggy, dry start to March, then unsettled for a couple of weeks before an improvement towards the end.We'll be back in a few weeks to see how April is shaping up and to see if spring will be a good one or not.
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