People’s complaints about the wintry weather were proven right by the Met Office yesterday when it confirmed that last month was the third coldest February in almost 90 years.

The coldest day of the month was St Valentine’s Day when the mercury hit 3.6°C while the highest was February 3 at 15.9°C.

February was colder than average at 10.2°C - 2.2° lower than mean of 12.4°.

Last month was the third coldest February since 1923 with an average maximum of 13°C and an average minimum of 7.5°C, well below the norm of 15.5°C and 9.3°C. The amount of rainfall was higher than the norm. In fact, it was more than twice the average of 61.3 millimetres as 132.6 millimetres of rain were registered by the Met Office.

The rainiest day was February 21 with 24.2 millimetres while the highest amount ever registered in February since 1947 was 187.9 millimetres in 1965.

February 21 was also the only day with no hours of bright sunshine while the brightest were Monday and Tuesday.

The mean wind speed was 9.4 knots, less than the norm of 10.3 knots.