February was sunniest on record

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The UK has had the sunniest February on record, the Met Office has revealed.

Sunshine totals up to 27 February reveal the UK-wide figure for the month was 106.1 hours - the previous record was 94.4 hours in 1970.

BBC forecaster Alex Deakin said "particularly long-lived" high pressure for much of the month had brought with it clear skies.

But, he said, the sunny spells were set to end, with windy weather likely to start March.

Temperature high

The amount of sunshine hours in both England and Wales were the highest since records began in 1929.

However, Scotland failed to beat its 1963 record of 92.6 hours, and Northern Ireland its record of 101.2 hours in 2004.

In addition, average temperatures across the UK are also on course to exceed the long-term average.

The provisional UK mean temperature for the meteorological winter - 1 December to 27 February - is 4.8C, which is 1.1C above the long-term average.