Weird Warm Winter to Continue in New Year

The New Year looks set to start off with more unseasonably warm weather. The strangely mild temperatures we've been seeing over the last few months show no sign of abating. Forecasts have New Years Day well above 10 degrees C.

Despite popular opinion, weather analysts at the Met Office are reporting that December's temperatures have been not far off average and that it's simply the memory of last year's record breaking cold December that is distorting our perceptions. Even stranger considering the complete no-show of 2011's summer, the Met Office is placing 2011 as the second warmest year on record. Boosted by very high temperatures in Spring and Autumn, only 2006 has ever been hotter overall.

The weird weather is having all sorts of strange effects on plants and wildlife too, with an abundance of winter berries defying the folklore staple of being a predictor of a cold winter. Butterflies were seen in November, and plants that ought to have been dormant over winter flowered for a second time, apparently of the opinion that it was spring already. Who would bet against daffodils in January, if the warm weather continues?