Final December CET by my calculations is 6.38C which means we finish just behind 2006 which saw 6.5C and equal with 1994 with 6.4C. Third warmest December since 1975 beaten only by 2006 and 1988.
It was a consistently warm month throughout with no cold spells at all. Provisionally the mean maximum CET for December is the 5th equal warmest on record (since 1878) at 9.6C. In recent times only 1974 and 1988 have been warmer.
Final official stats from Hadley should be available tomorrow.
2013 has been a remarkable year of two halves. The first six months saw a CET 1.2C below the 1971-2000 mean and the second six months were 0.8C above the 1971-2000 mean. Overall 2013 was just under 0.2C below the 1971-2000 mean so fairly average which is quite surprising given how cold the first half was.
Happy New Year to everyone on the forum. Plenty more interesting weather to come for sure in 2014.