The year was 1897 and 17.9C was the number. With the aid of a strengthening February sun and strong Europe high vs deep Atlantic low and warm, dry southwest winds blowing straight from the Canaries, Scotland made history today.

The setup was perfect.

While atmospheric conditions were just right, the icing on the cake was the lack of snow cover over the Highlands and particularly Grampians.

This lack of snow cover allowed the full effects of the foehn to blow into Aboyne, Aberdeenshire and lift the temperature to an astonishing summer-like 18.3C this afternoon.

Looking back to the start of what’s turned out to be a very snowless, mild month is it started promising.

Lot’s of snow cover.

We even had our coldest night since 2010.

https://twitter.com/BBCScotWeather/status/1091305339553792000

This time last year, we started to prepare for the ‘beast from the east’

While Scotland’s witnessed it’s warmest day on record for February, just last year, some towns and cities including Glasgow shivered their coldest February and March days.

Skip back a year ago and we were gearing up for an historic cold and snowy period…

https://twitter.com/SeanBattySTV/status/969307262455074816

Featured Image Credit: Netweather.tv

Tags: aboyne, february heat record, scotland record, warmest february day, warmest february day on record for scotland