Record breaking rainfall in December puts 2015 in the top ten wettest years on records going back to 1910
Latest early provisional statistics from the Met Office confirm December has been record breaking both for its warmth and rainfall.
The UK mean temperature (1-29 December) is a record breaking 8.0 °C which is 4.1 °C above the long-term average. The previous record was 6.9 °C in 1934.
This anomaly of +4.1 above the long term average is the highest such anomaly for any calendar month since 1910 - beating the previous record which was +3.3 °C above average in April 2011. This means the temperatures this December 2015 were closer to those normally experienced during April or May.
Along with the remarkable warmth, and virtual complete lack of frost, there has been a marked contrast in rainfall across the UK.
It has been the wettest December on record for Scotland (333.1 mm), and for Wales (321 mm) and Northern Ireland is currently ranked 4th wettest with 208.1 mm. North west England has also seen record breaking rainfall, but central and southern England have been much closer to average. For the UK as a whole its currently the second wettest on record
For Scotland, this is already the wettest ever calendar month in our series since 1910, with 333 mm in the first 29 days easily beating the previous record of 301 mm which was set as recently as December 2013.
For Wales, only one calendar month (November 1929) has had more rain than December 2015, and if the last two days of this month brings more than 16 mm then this record will be broken.
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