The UK in December 1998

 Mike Hulme on last month’s weather

 

 DAYTIME TEMPERATURES

 Overall, December in the UK was slightly milder than the average, more so in the north and west of the country than in the south and east. Two cold spells occurred - the 3rd to 7th and the 19th to 23rd - but in between these periods the UK enjoyed a very mild week. Average daytime temperature in the UK on the 14th reached 13.5ºC, about 6ºC warmer than the seasonal norm and more typical of May than of mid-December. The southwest of England was the most unusually mild, but many locations in the west and north of Scotland also recorded monthly temperatures more than 1ºC above the average. 1998 ended up as one of the warmest 20 years in the 340-year Central England Temperature series, the sixth such year out of the last 10.

 

 RAINFALL

 After a dry first week, December 1998 was quite a wet month especially in parts of the south and east of the country. The Christmas week was the wettest of the month, with Christmas Day recording a nationwide average of more than 7mm of precipitation, the wettest day of the month. Averaged across the country, rainfall totals were very close to normal. Of the twelve months of 1998, only February, May and August were drier than the long-term average.

  

SUNSHINE

 Sunshine totals in December were close to average, although the month was rather one of two halves. Until the 17th, recorded sunshine was about 30 per cent less than usual, whereas after the 17th sunshine totals averaged about 30 per cent more than usual. The 20th of December was an exceptionally sunny day, the nationwide average of 4.3 hours being more typical of late September or early April than of the winter solstice!

 

 Dr Mike Hulme is a Research Climatologist at the University of East Anglia

(more details at web site: http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~mikeh/)

 

 December 1998: an average month

 Daytime Temperature: 0.3°C above average; Rainfall: average; Sunshine: 4% above average.

 [all average figures are based on the 1951-80 average]

 

Mean monthly extremes:

Warmest Guernsey 11.4°C

Sunniest Aberdeen 61 hours sun

Wettest Eskdalemuir 174mm

Coldest Eskdalemuir 5.4°C

Cloudiest Stornoway 26 hours sun

Driest Scarborough 31mm