Mild weather set to continue (From Malvern Gazette)

Mild weather set to continue

10:10am Thursday 29th December 2011 in News

PEOPLE in Worcestershire have enjoyed unusually warm weather this Christmas and they can expect the mild temperatures to continue into the new year.

Weatherman Paul Damari said the festive season was as mild as he had seen, with some cloud and bright spells.

And he revealed temperatures were not expected to fall significantly with celebrations for New Year’s Eve on the horizon.

Mr Damari noted highs of 14C (57F) which compares very favourably to the low of minus 17c (1F) recorded in Pershore last year, and welcomed the warmer temperatures as a reprieve from snow, frost and high fuel bills.

He said: “I have never recorded that at Christmas in all the years I have been doing this. The Atlantic flow has been pumping more strongly, so it remained in double figures and the mild weather will keep re-occurring.

“Temperatures for Thursday and Friday will return to 7-8C (44-46F), about what it should be at this time of year. On New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day there will be some cloud and a bit of brightness and temperatures will continue in double figures, from 10-13C (50-55F). During the night time it won’t fall much below 9 or 10C (48-50F).”

In terms of rain, he is not expecting any dramatic increases or flooding.

“We are still not getting the quantity of rain as in other parts of the UK. We have only just had more than half the rainfall for the year and I don’t think that will be made up by the end of winter. The prospect of flooding around Worcestershire is very limited.”

The unseasonal weather has even caused a very early onset of spring, with a pretty bunch of daffodils already in full bloom in one Worcester garden.

Penny Steadman, who lives in the appropriately floral-sounding Foxglove Road, said she was surprised by the display but welcomed the splash of colour in mid-winter.

She said: “There’s probably about a dozen out. They are beautiful but it’s just such a strange thing to see at Christmas. They are just at the front of the house, where it seems to catch the right light and it’s always ahead of itself. You think it should be April, not December.”