December Smashes Rainfall and Temperature Records

© Met Office

Across much of the country it has been the wettest December on record, according to the Met Office, while the UK mean temperature for the month so far has been a toasty 8C - that's over 4C above the long term average.

December's record-breaking rainfall   © Met Office
December's record-breaking rainfall
© Met Office

Perhaps all this will come as little surprise to would-be winter walkers bereft of snow, or indeed anyone caught up in the endless floods.

The temperatures in December 2015 were more on a par with a typical April or May, say the Met Office, while the freakish +4.1C above the long term average is the highest such anomaly for any calendar month since 1910.

Though it's been unseasonably warm everywhere, with an almost complete lack of frost, rainfall levels have contrasted wildly across the country.

Thanks to the succession of storms, Desmond, Eva and Frank (does anyone else struggle to take this naming thing seriously?), it has been the wettest December on record in Scotland, Northwest England and Wales.

As a result, although figures have been far closer to normal in many other parts of the country, for the UK as a whole it's now the second wettest December since people started counting.

For the first days of 2016 the forecast is finally looking a little more wintry, at least on northern hills. Fingers crossed... 

 

Here's some impressive footage from earlier this month, when Malham Cove became temporarily England's highest above-ground waterfall for the first time in living memory:

 

 


This post has been read 1,590 times

Return to Latest News

Loading Notifications...
Facebook Twitter Copy Email