Monthly review February 2022

The winter month of February presented itself in our region clearly too warm, with above
average sunshine and relatively humid.
The month was 4.3 degrees too warm compared to the 1961-1990 climate reference period,
with a mean temperature of 4.7°C.

The sun shone for a total of 90 hours. This corresponds to a plus of 16 hours.
The sum of all individual measurements of precipitation reached 45.3 mm in Coswig in
February. Thus, the monthly sum corresponded to 137 % of the reference value for this
month. We thus registered - due to the low normal value in February - a relatively wet
month. The annual precipitation balance so far in 2022 thus reaches a plus of 28 mm.
Especially in the north of Germany, the monthly totals were regionally up to 3-5 times (!)
above the long-term mean values. On the other hand, some areas received significantly less
rain than the climate average. The driest areas were on the downwind sides of low mountain
ranges, such as the Harz Mountains. Consequently, only 40 to 70 percent of the usual
February rainfall was recorded in parts of Saxony-Anhalt.

Weather pattern:
In the past month of February 2022, predominantly cyclonic westerly weather conditions
determined the weather pattern here in Saxony (Fig.1). In connection with this, an unusual
series of strong storms occurred in the period from February 16 to 19, as a result of which
severe damage was observed regionally. On the last two days of February and at the start of
the meteorological spring, high pressure areas with abundant sunshine finally determined
our weather. During the nights, temperatures dropped much more significantly than the
days before due to clear skies.