Three seasons in a month – a review of the weather of December 2022

The temperatures gave an indication of the changes through the month. Starting with the night of 6th-7th December, there were 12 successive nights of frost. On 11th after a couple of days of freezing fog the temperature barely crept above freezing, and then 15cm of snow falling on the evening of 11th brought the deep freeze, with four successive ice days (days when the temperature never rises above freezing). We’ve already talked about the snowfall in our blog Snow Report.

Almost as amazing was the thaw that followed: from -2.3°C at 0330 on the early morning of 18th, to 10.7°C at the same time on the next day! Accompanied by heavy rain, this cleared the snow in record time.

It then stayed mild, and wet and windy, for the rest of the month – the temperature at midnight on New Year’s Eve was an uncharacteristic 11.3°C – that’s respectable for a summer night!

As for our rain/snow, aside from the heavy snow on 11th, measured manually and according to Met Office guidelines translated into an equivalent of 15mm rain, the wettest part of the month came in the last two weeks, as a series of depressions swept across us. This can be seen in the higher wind speeds and generally lower barometer readings of that time.