Coldest December in Wales

I don't think that we needed anyone to tell us that December was the coldest since records began - we already had a reasonably good idea!

It snowed in the early hours of Friday 17th December, with further heavy snow on Tuesday 21st, this deep covering stayed with us for almost a fortnight until Thursday 30th December.

Provisional figures released by the Meteorological Office reveal that December 2010 has become the coldest December across the UK in the last one hundred years (in fact since records began).

The mean temperature for the UK has been -1.0°C, well below the long term average of 4.2°C. The previous coldest December in the series was 0.1°C, in 1981.

The provisional UK, England and Wales figures for December 2010 show that the month was the coldest month since February 1986. In Scotland it was the coldest month since February 1947, and in Northern Ireland the coldest month on record.

December 2010 saw some exceptionally cold and snowy weather across most of the country, with temperatures quite regularly falling to between -10 and -20°C overnight. Many places also saw temperatures struggling to get above freezing by day.

In the last 100 years, the UK has only experienced five colder months - January 1940, February 1947, January 1963, February 1963 and February 1986.

Although it has been very cold and snowy it has also been relatively sunny and dry. Precipitation (rain and snow) levels were well below average for the UK, recording just 38% of what is normally expected in December. This makes it the third driest December in the series that goes back to 1910.

Wales stats for December
Average temperature -0.4°C (Previous coldest December was in 1981 with a mean temperature of 0.8°C)
Hours of sunshine 61.3 hours (The sunniest is 2001 with 73.5 hours)
Precipitation 53mm (The driest is 1926 with 34.0 mm)

Annual Wales stats
Average temperature 8.2°C (The coldest is 1963 with a mean temperature of 7.6°C)
Hours of sunshine 1612.6 (The sunniest is 1929 with 1684.3 hours)
Precipitation 1118.3mm (The driest is 1933 with 1015.0 mm)