Well- following this month Rob, we could at least say that virtually anything is possible. 6 months is too long for me to keep my fingers crossed- so I'll settle for a frosty first half of Feb followed by a month and a half of record breaking spring-like temps- 20C at the end of Feb.

Fantastic chart there Stormchaser

Just goes to show what a blowtorch month December has been and also the fact there will be a total of 0 air frosts,ground frosts or grass frosts or even remotly close to any!

Interesting to note from your chart just how p**s poor the summer was except for mid june to mid july,fingers crossed we can get a 5c+ anomaly any month may to September 2016

As expected very warm air has been dragged up from the south within the circulation of storm Frank.

This morning Rhyl recorded a temperature of 15.1C at 0700. Not a date record (the 0700 reading forms part of the data for the 29th for which the date record is 16.1C) but still an impressive figure for a time period that normally sees the minimum temperature being recorded.

Another unusual fact this month is the number of times that the maximum temperature in a 24 hour period has been recorded between 0z and 9z (i.e. overnight). Some very high figures too. Normally the minimum would be recorded in this period. Hence why the minimum temperature anomaly this month has been so high.

Here are the 7 dates on which the maximum temperature was recorded between 0z and 9z (the date quoted below is the date the temperature is attributed to but the actual readings were one day after the dates below given they were recorded after 0z):

5th Benson 14.1C
11th St Catherine's Point 12.3C
16th Cardiff St Athan 16.0C
18th Leeming 16.1C
21st St James Park 14.1C
25th St James Park 15.0C
29th Rhyl 15.1C

The lowest maximum recorded this month was the 12.3C at St Catherine's Point on the 11th. Every other day so far this month has seen at least 13C somewhere in the UK.

Its been really strange to experience and shows how all of this month's heat has come from advection and latent heat release from condensation, rather than anything from the sun.

Christmas day was the most surreal. Almost chilly for most of the day, then relentlessly warming as the evening progressed and 14C by the time I finished the washing up, put the used wrapping out and turned in.

Indeed. After the dullest November on record in the UK, December is not far behind. The main exception being the north of Scotland. Many parts of England have seen only around 50% of normal sunshine this month. Some, such as Herstmocnceux in Sussex have had just 24% of the mean figure (a total of 12 hours to date).

This could lead to a spike in the number of various aliments, including influenza (hopefully the jabs have covered the vulnerable). Vitamin D deficiency in W Europe during such spells is something to be aware of.

Sorry- off topic. I was triggered by your interesting post so it's your fault.

Surprised no-one has posted in here recently.  Just had a run of 4 consecutive days reaching 13C here, and today has equalled the highest temperature I've ever recorded in January of 15C, reached around lunchtime.   Recorded a temp of 13C at 6am this morning too.