Met Office: December 2015 breaks records

The latest provisional statistics from the Met Office confirm December has broken records both for rainfall and temperature

The month was not only the wettest December on record, but also the wettest calendar month overall since records* began in 1910, while 2015 is the sixth wettest year on record (dating back to 1910).

The UK mean temperature for 2015 is 9.2 °C, notably warm but not exceptional. The warmest year on record was set in 2014 at 9.9 °C. The UK mean temperature for December is record breaking at 7.9 °C, which is 4.1 °C above the long-term average. The previous record was 6.9 °C in 1934.

The temperatures for December 2015 were closer to those normally experienced during April or May. Along with the remarkable warmth, there has been a virtual complete lack of air frost across much of England, with the UK as a whole seeing less than three days of air frost on average for December which is eight days below the long term average. Although some places particularly in Scotland and over uplands have had some frosts.

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