February 1985

February 1985 was a cold month overall with a CET of 2.1

The month began unsettled and became very mild as high pressure built across Europe allowing a SWly flow from the Meditterenean to move across the UK. Maxima were widely around 12-13C. Around the 5th, high pressure over Greenland began to ridge towards Scandinavia with very cold air and then it began to ridge southwestwards toward the UK with the very cold air.
On the 7th, fronts began to move up from the SW and at first they brought rain but as the colder air to the north began to push south, the rain turned to snow across the north. The snow area slowly pushed southwards just as a low was moving through northern France. There were heavy snowfalls across the south of the UK with drifting snow in the easterly winds with depths of snow was approaching 20cm+ across many parts of the south. The weather became brighter and mostly dry by the 10th but it was very cold with severe frosts at night and subzero maxima. The easterly flow was replaced by a SWly flow across the north as an Atlantic system moved in on the 18th and the flow was cut off elsewhere by the 20th. The rest of the month was generally was dry and increasingly mild as southerly winds flooded the country with maxima around 13-15C

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