February was exceptionally mild, had average sunshine hours and despite average rainfall totals there were fewer dry days.
February 2022 was an unsettled month due to Atlantic low pressure systems sweeping east and bringing weather fronts across the UK. Despite this, pressure was a little above the long term average for SW England. Most of the low pressure centres were well to the north but on the 13th a low pressure centre moved northeast past Cornwall and over Wales and this produced the wettest day of the month. February was often rather windy especially so when a series of three named storms crossed the UK. On the 16th, storm Dudley moved across the south of Scotland and brought wind gusts of around 50 mph across the district. Storm Eunice on the 18th was an explosive deepening wave depression and the subject of Met Office Amber and the rarer Red Warnings for wind across SW England. This was the first use of a Red Warning in the SW of England. During the storm, wind gusts of around 70mph occurred across the district resulting in some temporary power loss and a number of downed trees. This was followed on the 21st by storm Franklin which produced gusts of around 60mph in exposed parts of the district, although the main focus of the storm was further north. Winds were mostly from a westerly point which helped keep temperatures much milder than average, although winds did turn southerly during the last few days of the month as high pressure formed to the east. Westerly winds are often associated with cloudier skies and rain so it comes as no surprise that there were fewer dry days than average although rainfall totals were near average as was the amount of sunshine.
