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With a mean temperature of 8.6 C, February 2024 was the warmest February on record locally since at least 1860. It was 0.4 degC warmer than the February of 1990 in Boyn Hill, the previous warmest February in the local record. In fact the average temperature was half a degree Celsius above what would be expected in a typical March these days.
Only 2 nights had an air frost at Boyn Hill, the lowest temperature being just -1.7C at Boyn Hill (on the morning of the 24th). However, as recently as 2014 there was no air frost in Maidenhead in February. 2024 was a far cry from the February of 1895. That month, at Castle Hill House, Maidenhead, the rainfall observer noted that the month was very cold, but dry with no precipitation falling from the 4th to 17th inclusive; on 20th February 1895 in the Maidenhead Advertiser, Looker On wrote:
What has been our experience of five weeks frost, snow and easterly wind? Our water-supply has been largely cut off, our sanitary arrangements have broken down, our gas has gone out, and we have been suffering more or less with catarrh, bronchitis and influenza.
In the mild February 1990 the temperature fell no lower than -0.4 C at Boyn Hill and there was just 1 night with an air frost. That month the temperature peaked at 18.5 C on the 23rd, compared to the high of 17.2 C on the 15th in the past month. In 2024 there was no snowfall observed in Maidenhead - snowless February months are occurring more frequently as mild weather arrives earlier in the year. In 2016 and 2023 there was also no snowfall in February. On average Maidenhead would expect to get 3 to 4 days with some snowflakes falling.
February 2024 was also wet and dull. A relative lack of sunshine (it was the dullest February since 2011) prevented the wet ground from drying out, and flooding of the fields was a common feature of the month. With 115.8 mm falling at Boyn Hill, it was the wettest February since 1951 (when 4.94 inches [125 mm] fell at Pinkney's Green Lodge). That in turn was the wettest February locally since 1859. February 2023 gave us just 4.8 mm - how things change in a year!
However, the autumn/winter period we have just experienced has given us frequent rainfalls since mid-September 2023 - at Boyn Hill 541 mm of rain has fallen in the last six months - compared to the 'normal' value of 381 mm. The fall we would expect in an average year is only a little larger at 678 mm. This had helped to keep our river levels high as similar (or higher) anomalies have occurred upstream of us along the Thames catchment.
The recent winter (which meteorologists count as the three months from December to February) produced an average temperature of 7.1 C at Boyn Hill (1.7 degC warmer than normal), making it the warmest winter since 2015-16.
The following information has been extracted from the daily weather observations made at Hurley during 1953-1992. This is a rural site.