If you felt like February was a particularly gloomy month, then it might not be lockdown cabin fever talking after all.

New data from the Met Office shows that Powys really was short of Vitamin D last month.

Wales received only 80 per cent (127.8 hours) of the seasonal average sunshine hours last month – and Powys received no more than 75 per cent.

So with the amount of sunshine on your back down by a quarter, it's little wonder the shortest month of the year felt like a long one.

Across the UK, the highest and lowest temperatures of the winter season were recorded in February, with some parts of the east coast having their wettest winter on record.

Cold conditions from the east brought temperatures down to -23C at Braemar in Aberdeenshire on February 11, the lowest temperature in the UK since 1995 and the lowest in February since 1955, according to the Met Office.

Forecasters said a southerly flow brought warm weather from the Canaries and Africa which led to the season’s highest temperature of 18.4C at Santon Downham in Suffolk on February 24.

Dr Mark McCarthy, head of the Met Office National Climate Information Centre, said: “February 2021 has seen a wide temperature range resulting from the two predominant weather patterns we’ve seen this month, with the first half of February experiencing some bitterly cold easterlies originating from Russia, and recent days seeing the influence of air coming from the Canary Islands.

“Minimum temperatures of below -20 were more frequent historically, but have become scarcer, while winter temperatures above 18C have become a little more regular, with four of the last five winters recording such events.

“Historically they were extremely infrequent events.

“Our winters are changing and as we have seen we can still receive cold snaps. It’s just that those extremes won’t be quite as cold or as frequent as they once would have been.”