February 2025: four of everything, one nervous asteroid
For one week in February 2025, astronomy had everyone's attention. On Tuesday 18 February, asteroid 2024 YR4 was rated at 3.1 percent for a strike on Earth in 2032. By the following week, sharper measurements had cut the risk to effectively nothing. The month around the scare was neater. It ran 28 days from Saturday 1 February, every weekday exactly four times. Business days numbered 20, in ISO weeks 5 to 9.
Four of everything
February 2025 was the tidy one: a Saturday start plus 28 days leaves four of each weekday, nothing over. The four Mondays fell on the 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th. The four Sundays followed on the 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd, no offcuts. The month held 20 business days and eight weekend days, four complete Saturday-and-Sunday pairs.
The month sat inside ISO weeks 5 to 9, sharing its first week with January and its last with March. Not a leap year, so no 29th: February does not leap again until 2028. A month with no remainder, in every sense.
A4 suits the short month down to the ground. Twenty-eight days, Monday start, week numbers 5 to 9 in the margin. Copy the same pattern four times and you are done.
The week the sky made headlines
On Tuesday 18 February, asteroid 2024 YR4 reached a 3.1 percent chance of hitting Earth in 2032. No asteroid of its size had ever carried higher odds. Telescopes went to work. Within a week the risk had fallen to effectively zero.
The moon was steadier. First quarter came on Wednesday 5 February and the full Snow Moon on Wednesday 12 February. Last quarter fell on Thursday 20 February, and a new moon on Friday 28 February closed the month in darkness. A four-week month and a four-week moon, matched.
From the Grammys to a state visit
The month opened with the Grammys on Sunday 2 February, where Beyoncé won Album of the Year for Cowboy Carter. A week later, on Sunday 9 February, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in the Super Bowl. New Orleans hosted. Germany voted on Sunday 23 February and turned to Friedrich Merz's conservatives.
Closer to home, Sir Keir Starmer flew to Washington on Thursday 27 February. He carried King Charles III's invitation for a second state visit, a first for any American president. Apple announced the iPhone 16e on Wednesday 19 February and had it on sale by Friday 28 February.
The asteroid missed, the grid balanced itself and the month ended on a new moon. February 2025 kept everything in fours, including its nerve.