December trends: The Mean monthly temperature was close to the long-term average in most parts of the UK - slightly above in Scotland and Northern Ireland, slightly below in southern England where it was the coldest December for four years. Lyneham had a mean maximum for the month 0.3°C below the overall average of 6.9°C, Rainfall was below average practically everywhere in the UK, with less than half the normal in parts of northern and western Scotland, Cumbria, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and East Anglia, while at Portland (Dorset) there was no significant rain between the 8th and 28th inclusive. Lyneham was different, and experienced only 77mm of rain for the whole month, where 29mm of that total, fell within a twenty-four hour period on the 1st. Generally it was quite a sunny month too, where only five days had no sunshine. On the 17th we had 6.5 hours of sunshine the most for the month, helping to accumulate 60 hours total, which was 120% of the normal. Over England and Wales it was the fourth sunniest December on record, after 1886, 1962 and 2001, while November and December were the sunniest such pairing since records began.