From current output, the conditions look like turning much more average pretty well from the stroke of January 1. January may not be a cold month but it doesn't look (at the moment) like the insane warmth will persist past next week.

Although CET records go "only" back to 1659. I do wonder if a December like this may have taken place in the early middle ages warming period of the 12th or 13th Centuries. There was a marked warming period in that time - and I feel from what I have read such as it is that this December or a rather a December like it may have taken place before about 700 years ago.

How can we prove it though?

The last seven days across Europe and the UK:

we've not even had the most extreme anomalies!

After a cold and raw morning with temperatures around 9.5c things have been restored back to normality. Currently 12.7c and rising swiftly.

How we have been spoiled with winter warmth this December. 

LOL 🙂 Same here - and that's how it felt to me. Shows how we've got used to these amazing mild temperatures.

14C here at the moment, after the temp had risen to 13C at 6am this morning.

Been up to 15C here.

yet another amazing mild day for this December.

I had hoped we would break the day record of 16.0'c today but the highest I've seen is 15.7'c.

Last night Gravesend was at 15.6'c at 3am!

Felt more like a march day today even saw a bumble bee ...it's ridiculously mild it can't continue like this....can it ..

Not for much longer! No real cold heading this way but the freakishly mild temperatures look like giving way to 'nearer normal' temperatures.

It has been another mild one today, we peaked at 13.4C here. If it wasn't for the strong winds it might have felt better 

Its more than weird now. The temperature peaked today at 13.4c after an overnight low of 12.2c. 

Had an overnight low of 13.45*C here which is the highest since 15th November. There was also an overnight high of 14.2*C which is higher than the daytime max of 14.0*C. Weird.

The diurnal mean today comes in at a winter-defying 13.7*C which is a staggering 9.27*C above the 2000-2014 date average.

The month mean gets a boost from 6.38*C above the 1979-2010 average to 6.49*C above so poised to cross the 6.5 mark which it will surely do tomorrow given that GFS goes for a 12*C min and 14*C max (perhaps close to 14.5*C based on high def charts), with that being based on it being 12*C at the moment when in fact it's 13.5*C... the model seems to be struggling to handle the magnitude of the mildness!

There's the suggestion of a few breaks in the cloud which would make for a phenomenal feel to things, but I'm not getting my hopes up in that respect. Looks a bit breezy but not that bad really.

On Monday the upper air temps are even higher - not far off 10*C which is crazy - but at the surface it's actually a little cooler with temps generally in the low double digits at best. Yet that's still way above average especially given that the previous night struggles to get far down into the single figures.

Tuesday looks similar, perhaps a bit fresher in terms of the feel of things. Uppers are much lower - not far above 0*C.

Then we have that nasty storm slamming the northwest (potentially) and throwing up another wedge of super-mild air. I wouldn't be surprised to see double digit minimums and maxes in the 12-14*C range again.

Only after that does it truly cool down to something nearer average more widely (though still above). Thursday may fail to reach double figures in many places but it does look like the south will just about get there.

What a mad month it has been.

Looks like a CET of 10C is a possibility.

It looks like we may have equalled the highest December minimum temperature on record today for England. The current record is 13.7C set at Whitby on 12 December 1994, the only year that comes close to this year in terms of November and December temperatures in England.

The minimum temperature at Benson in the 24 hours to 09z this morning appears to be 13.7C reached at 1700 yesterday although it may have dipped a little lower between the hourly readings. The minimum figure reported on the SYNOP data is 13.7C but I think that is recorded from 18z to 06z so would not have captured any lower reading between 16z and 18z yesterday.

Northolt and Heathrow were also both close but the temperature in both these locations dipped at 07z this morning taking them out of the reckoning. The temperature at Benson held up at that time.

It would be quite odd if Benson, a notorious frost hollow, has equalled the record for the highest December minimum in England.

The highest UK minimum for December is much higher at 15C at Hawarden in Wales.

Some other stats to add to this December - This December has been warmer than several Mays.

The value for 9am this morning was 12.1°C apparently? http://www.weathercast.co.uk/world-weather/weather-stations/obsid/3658.html 

Here we see a 7-day moving average of the date anomalies (LTA 2000-2014) for my location in 2015. The final few days are based on model projections at the moment but deviations from it aren't expected to amount to much. This chart will be updated once the year is done.

Up until late July, a fairly typical oscillation between warmer and colder than average is observed (this measure shows us how that single hot day to start July wasn't part of anything particularly impressive over longer timescales). Then comes several months of predominantly cooler than average conditions, most notably late July and early August (how typical!). What a contrast that was to one month previously when it was generally on the warm side.

November and December then took hold of the book of typical behaviour and tore it to shreds!

Up until then April had stood proud as the warmest month relative to average, and still holds the title of finest month relative to the norm, having sported decent sunshine amounts and not too much rain - a feat that Nov and Dec have not been able to match in terms of sunshine at least.

Today marks the final super-mild day based on model projections, but despite featuring the two most anomalously warm days, the past 7 days isn't the warmest such period, coming in at +6.57*C which is comfortably beaten by the period 16th-22nd Dec with a truly staggering value of +7.63*C.

Even with climate change, I find it hard to imagine that such an anomalously warm December could possibly be seen again within the next half-century at least. Today I walked in the heathlands of the New Forest, where an abundance of yellow flowers stood out like sore thumbs against the grey, gloomy background.

Edit: just to clarify, I do know that gorse often flowers in December, but in my experience it tends to be sporadic and not very extensive. This year most of the bushes are in full bloom!

Staggering chart SC. Let's hope anything like it will not reappear in your quoted timescale. However given my impression of the highly non-linear effects in climate change, I wouldn't be surprised if it is. 

36 Mays TBP