Steventon Weather

February 2024

February began with a slight ground frost followed by a sunny day but the next few days were mainly cloudy, dry and slightly warmer, the temperature reaching double figure:s.

This changed late on 6th with 17.5mm of rain falling overnight. The following two nights brought another 10.6mm & 13.5mm. These days were cloudy with some rain. This brought the temperature down from 13℃ on 6th to 6.5°C on 7th. Nights were correspondingly mild, up to 9.8°C on 3rd/4th and down to 4.2°C on 8th. The wind was moderate, fresher during the wetter periods, swinging between SW and SE as the depression passed through.

The barometer began to rise from 9th bringing more settled weather and sunny periods. The 15th was the warmest day of the month reaching 16.7° and was followed by 6.9mm rain overnight. The next day was dry with sunny spells. The 17th began dry but rain arrived late morning and continued into the night. I was woken next morning by a call from the Environment Agency to warn of flooding. On looking out I saw a wave of water coming from the road round the corner. It continued until the whole road was under water. On checking my rain gauge, I found that we had had 23.4mm rain over the previous 24 hours.

There was some rain on four of the next five days but only the 22nd was significant, at 14.6mm. It was the last rain until the final two days of the month, with 4.3mm & 7.9mm, bringing the total for February to 109.0mm over 14 days – half the month. It was, surprisingly, only the wettest since 2020 which had 112.7mm.

The dry spell from 23rd – 27th brought cooler conditions with daytime temperatures below 10°C and slight frosts of -0.4℃ and -0.1°C on 24th and 25th respectively, the first since 19th January.

Overall, February weather could be divided into six alternating periods beginning dry and ending wet. There were plenty of cloudy conditions but sun was recorded on about half of the days. It continued the mild trend by being 3.8℃ above my long-term average

p> February began with a slight ground frost followed by a sunny day but the next few days were mainly cloudy, dry and slightly warmer, the temperature reaching double figure:s.

This changed late on 6th with 17.5mm of rain falling overnight. The following two nights brought another 10.6mm & 13.5mm. These days were cloudy with some rain. This brought the temperature down from 13°C on 6th to 6.5°C on 7th. Nights were correspondingly mild, up to 9.8°C on 3rd/4th and down to 4.2℃ on 8th. The wind was moderate, fresher during the wetter periods, swinging between SW and SE as the depression passed through.

The barometer began to rise from 9th bringing more settled weather and sunny periods. The 15th was the warmest day of the month reaching 16.7℃ and was followed by 6.9mm rain overnight. The next day was dry with sunny spells. The 17th began dry but rain arrived late morning and continued into the night. I was woken next morning by a call from the Environment Agency to warn of flooding. On looking out I saw a wave of water coming from the road round the corner. It continued until the whole road was under water. On checking my rain gauge, I found that we had had 23.4mm rain over the previous 24 hours.

There was some rain on four of the next five days but only the 22nd was significant, at 14.6mm. It was the last rain until the final two days of the month, with 4.3mm & 7.9mm, bringing the total for February to 109.0mm over 14 days – half the month. It was, surprisingly, only the wettest since 2020 which had 112.7mm.

The dry spell from 23rd – 27th brought cooler conditions with daytime temperatures below 10°C and slight frosts of -0.4°C and -0.1°C on 24th and 25th respectively, the first since 19th January.

Overall, February weather could be divided into six alternating periods beginning dry and ending wet. There were plenty of cloudy conditions but sun was recorded on about half of the days. It continued the mild trend by being 3.8°C above my long-term average

Mike Wilkins

25 year Rainfall averages are from 1992-2016
30 year Temperature averages are from 1981-2010

Weather Summary table for 2011 at Steventon, Oxfordshire.

30 year temperature averages for Steventon are from 1981-2010
Oxford rainfall averages are from 1767-2004

 

MonthTemperature
°C
Rainfall
mm%
Oxford
MaxMinMean30yr
Avg.
>30yr
Avg.
 Oxford
January 12.7 -4.5 4.10 4.57 -0.47 79.7 52.6 151.5
February 12.7 -1.6 5.55 4.69 0.86 51.3 41.0 125.1
March 17.0 -3.4 6.80 6.86 -0.06 9.2 41.1 22.4
April 25.1 3.4 14.25 9.17 5.08 2.0 43.9 4.6
May 22.8 1.4 12.10 12.64 -0.54 47.2 50.6 93.3
June 28.6 5.7 17.15 15.82 1.33 46.0 53.3 86.3
July 24.8 8.3 16.55 17.91 -1.36 28.8 59.5 48.4
August 27.6 7.4 17.50 17.43 0.07 66.2 58.3 113.6
September 26.7 6.1 16.40 14.50 1.90 32.8 60.3 54.4
October 26.9 1.5 14.20 10.76 3.44 23.4 65.3 35.8
November 16.1 -1.0 7.55 6.94 0.61 29.0 61.8 46.9
December 12.1 -1.2 5.45 4.76 0.69 77.8 55.8 139.4
Year 28.6 -4.5 11.47 10.50 0.96 493.4 643.5 76.7

Summary data from Mike Wilkins, Jan 2012.