Once again this month the provisional Hadley data is reporting a figure that is far too high - about 0.4C too high at present.
My CET estimate is 6.44C as of today. Looking ahead every day in the next 2 weeks is expected to be above average, many well above average. The CET will therefore remain well above normal and is currently estimated to reach 6.8C by the 28th.
We are looking at possibly the warmest December since 1988 when we saw a CET of 7.5C. Prior to that we saw 8.1C in 1974 so this will in no way be a record breaking year but nonetheless a very mild December now seems very likely.
If the CET were to finish at 6.8C it would be the 15th equal warmest December on record since 1659.
Equally the second half of December looks very wet indeed with flooding likely to be a problem and frost almost non existent.