The mean monthly pressure field was very different from normal.
An intense Atlantic high was the outstanding feature, displaced
well to the northeast of its usual position south of the Azores to
be centred at 49N 21W, 1030 mbar. The Icelandic Low was
also displaced far to the northeast, near Spitsbergen at 1004
mbar with a marked trough extending southwards along
roughly longitude 5-10 degE to the central Mediterranean.
An anomalous depression was centred south of Newfoundland
at 1009 mbar. The flow over the British Isles was
anticyclonic/northwesterly. Indeed this was the second most
"northerly" February on record over the BI; only 1889 was
more northerly. It was also the least westerly since 1994 and
the most anticyclonic since 1993.

The sea-level pressure anomaly chart was completely
dominated by a huge positive region covering most of
the northern Atlantic, Greenland, eastern Canada, and western
and northern Europe, with a centre of +23mbar at 55N 28W.
Monthly anomaly centres 20mbar are rare in our sector.
Small negative areas were centred north of Spitsbergen,
well south of Newfoundland, and over the central Med.
The anomalous flow over the British Isles was strongly
northerly with a marked anticyclonic bias.

CET: 4.2ºC (equal to 1971-2000 norm)
E&W rainfall: 46.3mm (70% of '71-00 norm)
E&W sunshine: 75.6h (98% of '71-00 norm)

CScot Temp: +0.5 degC
Scot Rain: 103%
Scot Sun: 91%

NI Temp: -0.1 degC
NI rain: 86%
NI sun: 88%

(all values are provisional)

(c) Philip Eden