Number crunchers at the Isle of Man’s Met Office say that last month’s weather was unusual.

A spokesman from the Ronaldsway-based team said: ‘Traditionally February is either a dull, damp or a dry, cold month, however this month has predominately been influenced by high pressure situated to the south of the British Isles bringing mild Atlantic air.

‘So we’ve had the unusual winter combination of mild temperatures but also dry.’

The mild temperatures ranked second overall in the record books, behind 1998.

The mean daily maximum temperature was 9.8°C, 1.5 degrees higher than average.

There were no nights with an air frost, and just 5 with a ground frost.

The mean overnight minimum was 6.1°C, which is two degrees above average.

The highest temperature recorded was 12.1°C on February 20 and the lowest 2.0°C on February 5.

There was just 17.2 mm of rainfall measured at Ronaldsway in February – the driest since 2009.

For comparison, the long term average is 65.1 mm. The wettest days were the 22nd with 3.6 mm and the 16th with 3.5 mm.

A total of 72.2 hours of sunshine were measured, a little below the long term average of 83.9 hours.

The best day was the 9th with 8.1 hours.

The mean wind speed over the month was 12.5 knots, two knots below the long term average for February.

The strongest winds recorded at Ronaldsway were on the 8th, with gusts to 40 knots or 46mph.

There was no thunder, hail, snow or fog observed at the airport.