Hot air plume gives UK its hottest December day

BRITAIN has logged its hottest December day ever – 18.7 degrees celsius (65.7F).

The Met Office said the recording taken on Saturday at Achfary – a hamlet in the Scottish Highlands – was ‘provisional’ and still needed to be confirmed.

But, if it is validated, the centre’s forecasters said it would be ‘the highest temperature officially recorded in the UK during December’. The current record for the month is 18.3C (6 .9F), logged in Scotland in 19 8. The highest December temperature in England was the 17.7C (63.9F) that was recorded both in 1985 and 199 .

Extremely mild conditions over last weekend in northern areas were caused by a freak rush of hot air, or tropical plume.

At Cassley in Sutherland the temperature in the middle of Sunday night was a balmy 16.9C (62. F). Daytime temperatures were in the low to mid teens in Scotland and northern England all through the weekend.

By contrast, Rome reached a high of only 9C ( 8.2F) and Athens 8C ( 6. F).

This year has already seen the hottest winter day on record, with 21.2C (70.1F) recorded at Kew Gardens in west London in February. Cambridge University Botanic Gardens took the record for the hottest ever day, with 38.7C (101.7F) on July 25.