Once again we experienced an abnormally warm month. December’s average mean temperature of 6.9°C was well above our long term average of 4.8°C, and the second warmest of our records. Astonishingly, our last month with a mean temperature below the long term average was April 2023!

Furthermore, this December was the first in our 40 years of records without a single frost – the lowest temperature recorded this December was 1.8°C, whereas the average monthly minimum in our records is ‑3.3°C.

The month began unsettled, with Storm Darragh causing a lot of havoc further north, with its main impact on 7th December, but the impact in Epping was more muted. It delivered our wettest day with 13.6mm on the 5th as the storm moved in. Overall, however, it was a month of a little below average rainfall, but by no means exceptional – we recorded a total of 48.6mm as against the long term average of 59.1mm; and it rained on 19 days, almost exactly the average number.

Storm Darragh also gave us our lowest air pressure of the month, 986.4 hPa, but the most persistent weather of the month however was the so-called ‘anti-cyclonic gloom’ – an unmoving high pressure system sitting with a blanket of low cloud, mist or fog keeping the weather dull. Given the shortest daylight hours of the year, it made our December feel very dark and dreary at times.

The sunshine record bears that out, with the sun appearing on just 12 days for a total of 17.1 hours of sunshine for the whole month, the sunniest day being the 6th with a meagre 3.0 hours.

The wind record also shows this, with virtually no wind at all on the 27th. Our strongest wind gust of the month was 37mph (Force 7) on the 7th – Storm Darragh again – which was actually slightly less than the average December maximum in our 10 years of comparable records.

How was 2024 overall in weather terms? A summary of the year just passed will be published shortly – watch this space!