UK weather: December was wettest month on record, says Met Office

Figures emerge after regions in the North-East of England and Scotland suffer major flooding

Parts of Scotland were badly hit by floods during December

December was the wettest calendar month on record, the latest provisional statistics from the Met Office have revealed.

The figures, which will come as no surprise to the flood-affected regions in the North-East of England and Scotland, were released as a series of weather warnings were issued for the two regions.

A total of 230mm of rainfall was measured across the UK in December, with the figures being swayed by record-breaking months in Scotland (351mm) and Wales (359mm), and the second wettest December ever recorded in Ireland (221mm), just behind that recorded in 1919.

According to the Met Office, December wrapped up an especially wet year, the sixth wettest since records began in 1910, with Scotland, Wales and North-East England recording particularly a damp 12 months.

And although 2015 as a whole was not exceptionally warm in the UK, December continued to break records as the the country's warmest on record - with an average temperature of 7.9 °C.

At 4.1C warmer than the long-term average, the temperatures are closer to those expected in April or May. The previous record of 6.9C was recorded in 1934.

In England, thermometers recorded a mean temperature of 9.4C in December, which is just 0.8C below the country’s mean temperature for the entire year.

The data also points to a notable lack of frost, with just 2.6 days of air frost being recorded, significantly lower than the long-term average of 8 days.