December 2010 was a very exceptional month to say the least. A record breaker, not for snowfall across the region, but for the length and extreme(s) of the cold.

Peterborough Weather Watch recorded its lowest ever temperature when the thermometer dropped to -8.7°C at 06:55 on the 7th. PeterboroughWeatherWatch began recording data in October 2005. December had already seen a record low the previous day with -6.8°C recorded. This figure beating another all-time low of -6.0°C recorded on 28th November, as the cold spell began to take hold. A low of -7.3°C was recorded on the 18th. The previous low temperature was -5.8°C. Another site based in Longthorpe, abt 4½miles NW of Peterborough Weather Watch and run by a good friend of mine, recorded a low of -9.4°C on the 7th !!

Another extreme was set on December 20th. This day saw the lowest maximum daytime temperature recorded by Peterborough Weather Watch. The thermometer failed to rise above -4.4°C. The actual daytime (6am to 6pm) average for the day was an astonishing -5.9°C !! The site in Longthorpe recorded a maximum of only -5.4°C on this day.

December saw an amazing 8 ice days, and for the 4 days from 17th-20th, the temperature remained below freezing throughout. Two other days saw the temperature only nudging +0.1° above freezing for a short time. Ice days are when the temperature does not rise above freezing for the 24 hours between Midnight and 23:59. We had already seen an Ice day on 28th November. To put this into perspective, we would really only expect to see one or two ice days through the Winter as a whole, let alone eight days through one month !!

The only real milder period through December was from the 12th through to the 16th, when the temperature peaked above 7°C for three of those days.

The 16th saw the return of the cold as a cold front swept across the region, this introducing some true Arctic air. The rate of the of the temperature drop as the cold front crossed the region was remarkable by UK standards and this drop rate was mirrored across the UK.

We had a frost on 23 days through the month. (This is subject to revision downwards after a data check is completed.)

The overall figures for December from PeterboroughWeatherWatch:

The official Met Office averages for East Anglia as a whole - 1971-2000

Average Maximum: = +7.6°C

Average Minimum: = +2.1°C

December Average = +4.9°C

The overall CET (Central England Temperature) for December was an astonishing -0.7°C which is an anomoly of over -5°C compared to 1961-2000 averages. The CET series goes back to 1659.

* The 1991-2005 averages are figures extrapolated by Peterborough Weather Watch from the official Met Office gridded data for an area approximately within a 50 mile radius of Peterborough.