White Christmas? UK hotter than Athens and Rome with extra warmth to return on Boxing Day
Met Office officials confirmed that parts of the UK were far hotter than nicer places such as Sicily and Rome in Italy, and Athens in Greece, with more heat to come
Parts of the UK were hotter than Sicily, Rome and Athens today with a balmy 13c record. And forecasters reckon Boxing Day will be “milder” too.
Aberdeen and Belfast were set to hit the highest temperatures on Christmas Day with the rest of the country not far behind. Among the hotspots with an unseasonably mild 12c were Plymouth, Cardiff, Newcastle and Glasgow.
That put them on a par with Mediterranean destinations like Athens and Sicily – and warmer than Paris and Milan. A Met Office spokesperson told the Daily Star: “The UK is a lot milder than other parts of Europe this Christmas Day. The reason for that is to do with the jet stream bringing a cold plunge of air across much of central and eastern Europe.
“But for the UK and other parts of western Europe like Spain, we’re in very mild conditions with mild air from the Atlantic spread across the festive period. For Christmas Day top temperatures could probably be reaching 14 degrees in parts of the north – 13C is most likely but 14C is an absolute max.
“So somewhere between 13C to 14C is most likely – somewhere far north-east will probably be the warmest place, somewhere like Aberdeen for example. And yes that is a few degrees higher than elsewhere even in parts of southern Europe.
“Athens in Greece, for example, will be 11C or 12C and then Rome is the same. So it’s definitely looking milder and the same goes for Boxing Day as well.”
The Met Office confirmed that it will be “largely dry” over the rest of the week. Rain will affect central and southern Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland tomorrow.
For the rest of the UK it will be mostly dry and mild, though rather cloudy further south. Meanwhile, the Met Office also told the Daily Star that records were broken for Christmas Day temps in parts of the UK.
The spokesperson revealed: “The highest daily minimum temperature record for Christmas Day has been set, that’s over a 24-hour period, the overnight temperatures if you like. Killowen in Northern Ireland only fell to 11 degrees and Kinloss in Scotland the lowest temperature was 11.9C.”
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