February had twice as much rain as in the average year but it was also sunny and the temperature was higher than normal, weather bureau Weeronline said on Saturday.

With just three days to go, Weeronline said an average of 117 millimetres of rain fell during the month, compared with 60 millimetres in a normal year. In some places, however, the amount of rain topped 200 millimetres.

Force 9 wind speeds were recorded on seven different days, thanks to the storms, and there were two days with winds of up to force 11, Weeronline said.

But it was also warm for the time of year, with an average temperature of 6.9 Celsius, and sunny with 102 hours of sun, 10 more than in the average February.

There was also very little frost. Adding the expected night frosts on Saturday and Sunday to the total, there will have been just five days on which the temperature dipped below zero.