UK weather: Met Office records hottest ever December day amid climate crisis

The UK has recorded its hottest December day ever.

Temperatures of 18.7C were recorded in Scotland over the weekend, the highest ever measured in the UK during December.

The Met Office said the recording taken from Achfary was “provisional” and still needs to be quality controlled. But if validated it will be “the highest temperature officially recorded in the UK during December”, it said.

The previous record had stood since 1948, when a temperature of 18.3C was recorded in Achnashellach in Scotland, on 2 December.

This year has already seen the hottest winter day on record, when a temperature of 21.2C was taken at Kew Gardens in February. It also saw the hottest day on record in the UK, when 38.7C was registered at Cambridge University Botanic Gardens on 25 July.

The Met Office noted in its year in review that 2019 had seen record highs throughout the year, which is unusual.

“2019 will be remembered as an exceptional year for weather records, as it is unusual to get both the UK summer and winter high temperature records within the same calendar year,” said Mark McCarthy, head of the Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre.

“But this continues a pattern of high-temperature records in the UK over the last few decades, as a result of our warming climate.”

It comes as experts warn that the number and intensity of extreme weather events are set to increase because of climate change.