In spite of a rather cold couple of days‡ have you noticed this year that there are vastly more daffodils out for Dydd Gŵyl Dewi.
Garden and verge-side daffs seemed much earlier in 2024. A mild (and very wet) February and we estimate that the first varieties of daffs were up ’n’ out two to three weeks earlier than usual. Some of the tête-à-tête cultivars had fully bloomed in the first week of February, followed quickly where sunny by ‘proper’ (usually non-native) daffs. This year, daffs could often be seen alongside snowdrops. Snowdrops did not appear to be noticeably earlier.
Not only that. Hedges are greening up well ahead of time. We'd suggest at least three weeks earlier. Lesser celandines are an early wild flower but in the third week of February some were actually going over. At the same time, there were even a few gaudy common dandelions out. We’d say that this was three to four weeks in advance of the usual dandelion onslaught. Similarly, the common primrose and its subspecies were ahead of themselves.
What’s going on?
The highest temperature I noticed this February in Rhuthun/Ruthin was 15°C. This graph shows the temperature in Rhuthun during February 2024.
There were 14 days when February 2024 temperatures were in double figures. This was only exceeded in February 2019. Temperatures reached 17°C in February 2019 but, overall, February 2019 was slightly colder, with a lower average minimum temperature. Similarly, in 1998, we reached 16°C but that was for one day only and temperatures were generally less than 10°C. The last few days of February 1987 were warm but not the rest of the month. If you go back to the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, rarely did February temperatures exceed 10°C and were often much less.
Compare it to the temperatures in February 2010. The highest temperature was 8°C. The average was 4°C and there were no days in double figures.
‡ For one day in late February 2024, this was the first time this winter that all our radiators were active at the same time. One thermostat controlled radiator has *never* been on before, other than during maintenance. We estimate we have used 43 per cent less energy than in January 2024.
