Climate summaries

Overview of weather across the UK for previous months, seasons and years

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UK last month

December 2024

December was marked by a series of unsettled weather patterns across the UK. The month began with a mix of rain and wintry showers, particularly affecting northern and western regions. Storm Darragh, the fourth named storm of the season, brought significant disruption from the 6th to the 8th, with heavy rain and severe gales, especially in coastal areas of Wales and southwest England. This multi-hazard event brought a prolonged spell of damaging winds, as well as significant rain, and saw the first red warning issued since Storm Isha in January 2024. Following the storm, high pressure briefly settled over the UK, bringing calmer and colder conditions, particularly in Scotland where frost and freezing fog occurred. However, changeable weather returned with frontal systems bringing showers across various parts of the UK as well as fog and wind and some wintry showers on high ground in the north, which persisted through to the 22nd. Temperatures turned milder as a tropical maritime airmass from the southwest dominated, with fog and drizzle across the UK and some rain in Scotland. The final few days of December saw wet and unsettled weather set in, with heavy rain in northern England, Wales and Scotland.

December was milder than average, with the UK experiencing a provisional mean temperature of 6.2°C, 2.0°C above the long-term average. This was provisionally the fifth warmest December on record for the UK. All four countries saw temperatures above average overall, although Wales and Northern Ireland were slightly cooler than England and Scotland. Rainfall has been above average for the UK, provisionally recording 139.4mm of rainfall, 110% of the long-term average. Scotland in particular was exceptionally wet, seeing 133% of the long-term average rainfall. Meanwhile Northern Ireland saw below average rainfall levels, provisionally recording only 69% of the long-term average rainfall for December. The month was dull overall, with sunshine hours around half the average for the UK, which provisionally recorded only 24.3 hours of sunshine, 57% of the long-term average. Scotland and Northern Ireland were slightly sunnier, seeing 62% and 60% of the long-term average sunshine hours, respectively.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows: A maximum temperature of 15.9°C was recorded at Westonzoyland (Somerset) on the 1^st. A minimum temperature of -11.2°C was recorded at Tyndrum (Perthshire) on the 11^th. In the 24 hours ending at 0900 UTC on the 30^th, 123.2mm of rain fell at Achnagart (Ross & Cromarty). A wind gust of 83 knots (96 mph) was recorded at Berry Head (Devon) on the 7^th.

Regional values for December 2024