December 25th 2023.
It was a very special Christmas morning in the Scottish Highlands. Residents of Aviemore, a town of 3,000 people in the Cairngorms, were treated to a dusting of snow and sleet - enough for the Met Office to declare an official "White Christmas" for the UK.
The rest of the country was in for a surprise - while Scotland was experiencing its winter wonderland, elsewhere the temperatures were balmy. The mercury even hit 13.2C in Exeter Airport and Merryfield in Somerset, making it the warmest December 25 since 2018.
But it wasn't just Scotland that was feeling the effects of climate change. The minimum temperature recorded on Christmas Day was 12.4C in Exeter Airport and East Malling, Kent - beating the previous record of 11.5C measured at Waddon in Croydon in 1983.
Meanwhile, in Bude, hundreds of brave souls took part in a "no wetsuit" Christmas Day swim. And though England and Wales were expecting a "damp and miserable" day, northern areas, Scotland and Northern Ireland could expect sunny spells and showers.
Wind speeds of up to 70mph were recorded in Scotland, reaching 60mph in the north-east of England. Despite this, it was still not the warmest December 25 on record - that honour goes to the 15.6C in 1920, while the highest Christmas Eve temperatures of 15.5C were set in Aberdeen and Banff in Scotland in 1931.
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