NOTE: This weblog shall be up to date with the ultimate provisional figures for December 2022 within the new 12 months. The under figures are right as much as 29 December.
A chilly December bucked the pattern of 2022 and ended the 12 months as the one month which noticed below-average temperatures, in line with early provisional Met Workplace figures.
With 2022 provisionally confirmed because the UK’s warmest 12 months on document for the UK December ended a 15-month run of above common temperatures (from September 2021) with an total cool, dry and sunny month for the UK in comparison with 1991-2020 long-term averages.
Largely chilly and dry
The primary two weeks of December have been the coldest begin to meteorological winter since 2010, with excessive stress and a cool northerly airflow leading to a chronic spell of low temperatures with snow and icy situations at instances, albeit with interludes of clear skies.
A climate station at Braemar, Aberdeenshire, recorded the bottom day by day most temperature of the 12 months, with -9.3°C the very best it reached on 12 December. Within the early hours of the next morning, the identical station recorded the bottom minimal temperature of the 12 months with –17.3°C.
The chilly snap ended with a dramatic change to a lot milder situations bringing widespread thaw situations. Temperatures for the rest of the month have been principally above common for the time of 12 months, although December total will nonetheless go down as a cool month for the UK with the typical imply temperature at 2.7°C, which is 1.5°C cooler than the 1991-2020 common.
These cool situations have been replicated throughout the UK with England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Eire all seeing temperatures round 1.5°C decrease than their common for the month, although not chilly sufficient to bother any data. For comparability, December 2010, the UK’s coldest December on document in a sequence from 1884, was an distinctive 5.1°C colder than the 1991-2020 common.
Mike Kendon is a local weather info scientist working for the Nationwide Local weather Info Centre within the Met Workplace. He stated: “December’s climate will principally be remembered for the notably chilly begin to the month, with extended low temperatures, exhausting frosts and snow and ice at instances, even to areas additional south within the UK.
“This cool climate was principally introduced on by an Arctic Maritime airmass, with daytime temperatures struggling to rise above freezing for a lot of in what was one of the vital spells of low winter temperatures for the reason that distinctive December of 2010.”
Chilly climate and local weather change
Though the UK will proceed to expertise various chilly spells of climate, the frequency, severity and durations of those temperatures has declined on account of local weather change, as may be seen in observational knowledge and as a part of a post-event report on early December’s low temperatures.
The graph’s blue and pink strains present the variety of days in every calendar 12 months from 1960 when the UK-wide imply temperature was under 2°C and 0°C respectively, with the hatched strains displaying a downward pattern.
Mike Kendon added: “Such is the variability of the UK local weather, we’ll all the time expertise chilly climate. Nonetheless, what our noticed knowledge reveals is the reducing prevalence and severity of those occasions in a altering local weather. Utilizing 30-year local weather averaging intervals from 1961-1990 and 1991-2020, the variety of days the place imply temperature for the UK was under 2°C has decreased by a 3rd inside this thirty-year interval, and the variety of days under 0°C has halved. These are dramatic modifications.
“The truth that we’ve seen the warmest 12 months on document for the UK in 2022 regardless of the chilly December climate demonstrates how persistently heat the remainder of the 12 months was, with each season’s imply temperature sitting in its high 10 on document in a sequence which works again to 1884.”
Dry December
Regardless of late-month rainfall bringing figures up, December remained drier than common for the UK. With milder Atlantic air and related rain-bearing fronts blocked throughout the chilly spell, there was little precipitation total throughout many elements of the UK for the primary half of the month.
Though the determine is predicted to rise into the weekend, the UK has had 94.5mm of rain in December, which is 74% of the typical.
Northern Eire has been the driest of the UK areas, with 79.9mm of rain within the month placing it at round two thirds of what you’d count on in December. England noticed 73.1mm (79% of common) and Wales 135.4mm (77% of common).
Solar shines for many
Excessive stress and clear Arctic air resulted in plentiful clear skies to be present in December, except for northern Scotland, and the UK seeing 13% extra sunshine hours than common.
Western areas typically noticed extra in the best way of sunshine, however the overwhelming majority of the UK has had a shiny, albeit chilly, month of climate. Northern Eire has seen greater than 1 / 4 extra sunshine hours than common, Wales 23% greater than its common and England 15% greater than its common. Scotland will finish the month with near-average figures for sunshine.
The ultimate provisional statistics desk for December shall be revealed within the New Yr.
