Storms Ciara, Dennis and Jorge hit our region in February, however fortunately only Storm Ciara had a significant impact on our customers, when we worked hard to restore power to 27,000 customers.
We were pleased that throughout the adverse weather conditions, our improved flood defences at key operational sites ensured that our assets continued to function as normal.
We hope that the weather will start to ease as we move into spring, however, as always, if you find yourself without power you can find us on social media or call us on 105.
A look back at February’s weather
Although rainfall has been close to normal so far this winter, there was a dramatic shift in the weather pattern in February that saw frequent frontal systems moving into Northwest England. This meant that the month on average ended up very wet, with some sites in the area seeing more than double the monthly average for rainfall!
The extra wet weather was due in part to two winter storms, Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis, which came into the UK in early-February and mid-February respectively. Storm Dennis, for example, saw a few sites in the Lake District record over 100mm of rainfall in a single day. The two strong winter storms also saw flooding on many rivers throughout the UK, including Northwest England.
Between these winter storms, low pressure systems were frequent visitors to the country and generally kept things wet but with temperatures a bit above average. However, towards the end of the month, cooler air was able to feed in for regularly, and hill snow was seen from scattered, often squally showers.
A look ahead to March
The good news heading into March is that when we look back as previous winters and springs, a wet February can often be followed by a drier March. There are some encouraging signs that this may be the case this year too, at least eventually.
While the start of March is likely to be a bit stormy and wet following on from February, we expect high pressure to start to build in from the southwest as we head later into the middle of the month. This will eventually create a north-south split in the weather across the UK, with southern areas seeing drier weather and northern areas getting more frequent rain. Northwest England will tend to be on the drier side of things more often than not, but some rain may creep in from the northwest at times. Overall, we also expected it to be milder than normal, with warmer sub-tropical air feeding in from the southwest.
In the event of an unexpected power cut you can contact Electricity North West 24/7 on the free national number 105 or call 0800 195 4141 or let us know on Twitter or Facebook.
If you need extra support, sign-up to our Priority Services Register. To discover more about the extra support on offer watch our Priority Service video here.
