Changeable southwesterly winds dominated
the month – in fact only the Decembers of 1974 and
1912 were more ‘southwesterly’ – but
there was a marked contrast between predominantly low pressure
during the first half of December and predominantly high
pressure during the second half. However, low pressure
returned with a vengeance during the last three days. In
spite of the frosty spell over Christmas, this was the
warmest December since 1988. Averaged
nationally, rainfall and sunshine were both slightly above
normal; Rainfall was totalled at 92mm for the whole month
which was 119% of the 30 year average. New Years Eve, we
experienced the maximum fall for the month where 15.8mm
fell to dampen the festive celebrations. Temperature wise,
the month was above average for a winter month and the
mean average was 1.0°C avove normal at 8.2°C. The
warmest day was recorded on the 4th at 12.9°C and themometers
dropped to -5.7°C sixteen days late for the lowest
night minimum. December was quite a dull month the sun
only managed to
break the cloudy skies for 41 hours, which is just under
half the recorded sunshine for December 2001. |
