A mild spell has led to provisional new temperature records for New Year's Eve and January for the UK but temperatures are now starting to trend down says the Met Office.
2022 is only a few hours old and we already have 2 new UK heat records.
— Dave Throup (@DaveThroup) January 1, 2022
Warmest New Year’s Day on record
Highest ever recorded minimum temperature for the month of January.
Unlikely these will be the only records for 2022 as global heating increases. pic.twitter.com/uU3QJtVULG
The extremely mild spell is driven by a flow of warm, moist air pushing across the UK from the Canary Islands and further south in the Atlantic and has resulted in the unusual situation of one weather system breaking weather records for two days in separate calendar years. As well as mild temperatures it has also brought cloud and outbreaks of rain for some.
This spell has led to a number of provisional records being set in the last couple of days. 16.5 C was reached at Bala on December 31 which is a New Year’s Eve record for the UK and Wales.
All other UK countries also set New Year’s Eve daily maximum temperature records. Keswick in England reached 15.9 C, Kinlochewe in Scotland reached 16.1 C, and Magilligan reached 15.0 C in Northern Ireland.
The record breaking warmth over the #NewYear2022 is thanks to a flow of warm subtropical air from the Azores🌡️
— Met Office (@metoffice) January 1, 2022
But the weather is set to briefly turn wintry this week with cold winds originating from the Arctic leading to overnight frosts, and snow for some by Tuesday😰❄️ pic.twitter.com/Vr9yvtOAvy
A daily minimum temperature of 13.2 C recorded at Chivenor, in Devon is provisionally a new UK and England record for January. This beats the previous UK record of 13.1C set at Magilligan (Londonderry) in 2016 and the previous English record of 13.0C set at London St James Park in 2008.
There is also a new Welsh January daily minimum temperature record with Trawsgoed (Dyfed) recording 12.8C beating the previous record of 12.5C set at Gogerddan (Dyfed) in 2016.
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