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Climate newsletter |
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Spotlight on 'warmest February on record' |
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On 1 March, the Met Office released provisional statistics indicating that both England and Wales had their warmest February on record this year. The average temperature in England for February 2024 was 7.5 °C, topping the previous record of 7.0 °C set in 1990. Wales saw an average mean temperature at 6.9 °C for the month, marginally ahead of 1998’s record of 6.8 °C.
Met Office Senior Scientist Mike Kendon said: “The UK’s observations clearly show winters are getting warmer, and they are also getting wetter since as the atmosphere heats up, it has an increased capacity to hold moisture. The top-ten warmest winters on record for the UK include 2024, 2022, 2020, 2016 and 2014 and the top-ten wettest 2024, 2020, 2016 and 2014 – so very mild winters also show a tendency to be very wet.”
With a warmer-than-average season, a declining number of ground frosts was again evident for the UK, with significantly fewer ground frosts than average. The BBC have produced an explainer on this. Met Office climate scientist Dr Mark McCarthy said: “1.0 °C of warming is equivalent to about three weeks' fewer frosts over the course of the year."
On 7 March, the Copernicus Climate Change Service reported that February was also the warmest on record globally. The average surface air temperature was 13.5 °C, 0.8 °C above the 1991-2020 average for the month.
Commenting on the report, Met Office Head of Long Range Prediction, Professor Adam Scaife, said: “2024 is the first calendar year where there is a significant chance of breaching the 1.5 °C level, but whether this happens will depend on the balance between extra warmth from the current El Niño and whether we get a decrease later in 2024 from La Niña.”
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 On 1 March, the first day of meteorological spring, we published a blog post by Met Office climate spokesman and wildlife enthusiast, Grahame Madge, on the impact a shift to warmer spring temperatures has on wildlife.
On 1 March, we published a blog post on wildfires, considering the science indicating that climate change is promoting the conditions on which they depend. Dr Chantelle Burton, climate scientist at the Met Office, said: “We are already seeing the impact of climate change on weather patterns all over the world, and this is disrupting normal fire regimes in many regions. It is important for fire research to explore what is changing, what effect this could have on people and the environment, and what communities need to do to prepare.”
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Hosted by the Alan Turing Institute, AI UK 2024 - from 19-20 March - explores how data science and AI can be used to solve real-world challenges. With a diverse programme thematically structured around the latest innovations from across the AI ecosystem, expect to hear the latest thinking on fundamental AI, digital twins, algorithmic bias, AI ethics – and much more.
 23 March each year is World Meteorological Day, and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) theme for 2024 is ‘At the Frontline of Climate Action’. They point out that Sustainable Development Goal 13 commits us to “take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.” Progress in this goal underpins progress in all the other Sustainable Development Goals.
Our next UK Climate Projections webinar is coming up next week on Thursday 21 March 2024, 12-1pm.
We’ll be joined by David Viner who co-chairs our Development and Knowledge Sharing (DaKS) network. He’ll be talking about understanding dynamic risk. Richard Chandler from UCL will also speak about the EuroCORDEX-UK project to enhance our climate projections. There will also be an opportunity for attendees to ask questions.
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