Also:

London St James Park 15.3C

Kew Gardens 15.3C (hourly max so absolute max may well have been higher)

Latest Met Office Blog says it is the 4th warmest start to December for the UK as a whole since 1910.

However the temperature anomaly for England and Wales is much higher than for the rest of the UK hence why we have an all time record for Wales and southern parts of England to the 14th (although records for these regions only go back to 1960).

http://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2015/12/16/mild-start-to-december/

I was wondering how far temps might climb as of midday what with some holes in the cloud developing - but that was soon replaced with murky low cloud and the potential for a nudge above the 'baseline' temperature was lost.

With a 14*C maximum it was pretty much in line with GFS for once... but the overnight period wasn't, logging 12.5*C as opposed to GFS' 11*C. That's gone and set a new largest anomaly for the Nov-Dec 'mild madness'; +8.67*C.

Now it comes down to whether tomorrow can manage to be even warmer. Saturday also continues to have the potential to be exceptional but there's been a slight nudge down in the maximums since yesterday's GFS op runs. It also looks to be important just how soon the wave of warm air arrives; the minimum of around 11*C for Fri-Sat is being shown to be between 2100 and 0000 so if the warmer air arrived a few hours sooner the min would end up being more like 13*C or so and the record largest 24h anomaly of the year would most likely be set, having possibly only been established 48 hours earlier (if Thursday beats the +8.92 of 1st July).

I've been checking the trees for signs of budding and there are hints here and there. It makes me wonder just how damaging it could be if nature goes into spring mode only for it to turn seriously cold in January - which is a distinct possibility based on current signals.

Reading 14C on the car at 10pm this evening. It felt warmer on the dog walk tonight as opposed to this morning when it was 13C, mainly due to the lighter winds and the damp feeling having evaporated (which has been relentless for days). So bizarre. 

From the synoptic network, Aultbea in Wester Ross was 15.7C at 0600 this morning in a strong SSW wind. Local stations on Wunderground show similar values and in several of the stations in the area show a spike in temperatures between 0700 and 0900 this morning, so there has most likely been some kind of Foehn effect kicking in for a couple of hours. One or two of the stations may have exceeded 16C for a short time.

The UK December record temperature is 18.3C at Achnashellach in 1948. It's the same general area and obviously is prone to enhancement of the already warm source air by descent from above mountain level.

The HD models really suck at unusually warm winter temperatures; it was 16C this morning in altnaharra (a good 6C warmer than predicted), even now its 15C quite widely in the south (a good 3C warmer than predicted). If we maintain this 3C gap then we should expect to see 18C in lincolnshire in a few hours, but even if we don't then 16C or 17C is on the cards.

It feels like the first day of Spring out there right now. Incredible. Birds and insects full of life in the garden

So this is Global warming in action!

Even here on the hill it's 13.8c.

Typical as it is, the minimum here last night matched the GFS output for the first time in ages, coming in at 11.4*C. This was due to some clear skies between 5 and 6 in the morning. Yet in itself it's remarkable that clear skies, with not much of a breeze, in mid-December, wasn't able to get the temperature to fall any lower!

Currently halfway between 13 and 14*C here and I'm not sure it's going to climb much more, as the cold front is approaching. On the other hand, Yeovilton reported 15*C at noon.

I see London Airport is at near 16*C now... no Foehn involved there!

Pershore reporting 16.9C.

14.2c at 10:47  the best for Peasedown St John for the day.

I don't know if this has already been posted but in case it hasn't. 

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cet_info_mean.html

Can't get the link to work POD; want to try again?

Is it global warming in action or just persistantly southerly winds?

If northerly winds brought warm weather I would be worried. 

Try copy and paste.

15.2c today - the highest December temperature on record for my garden (from 2003)

Even more bizarre when parts of the Scottish Highlands were even warmer!

Seems to be an error. The max at Pershore was 15.1C today.

Max from my list seems to have been Gravesend at 16.2C but some of the London ones may have pipped it.

Gravesend is as high as I can find in the Ogimet data:

http://www.ogimet.com/cgi-bin/gsynres?lang=en&ind=03784&decoded=yes&ndays=2&ano=2015&mes=12&day=17&hora=18

Less than 4 degrees from 20*C in the middle of our darkest month. Amazing.

Check 8am this morning in Altnharra. Oddly it was very warm very early in the far north.