The partition that could finally be dropped

A partition where every remaining row was past its retention, eight months after the classification work.

-- the check that makes a drop safe
SELECT retention_class, COUNT(*),
       MIN(created_at), MAX(created_at)
FROM events PARTITION (p2024_02)
GROUP BY retention_class;

-- class 3 only, all of it past 18 months

ALTER TABLE events DROP PARTITION p2024_02;
-- 1.9 seconds, 22 GB

The partition scheme from 2023 aligns with the retention classes only at the extremes, so most deletions remain a batched nightly job — this is the first partition where the alignment happened to work. Checking the class distribution before dropping is what makes it safe, and it is three lines that would otherwise be an irreversible mistake.