December'swet start

The soggy first of the month meant 12.6mm/0.49ins of rain drenching the town.

This formed the trend for the first ten days in which nearly three-quarters of all December's rain fell.

The month's total rainfall was 70.8mm, less than the 75.54mm monthly average.

But the damp conditions were also mild as temperatures reached an unseasonal 13.5C/56.3F on the 5th and 6th.

The middle of the month saw the weather change to bright with plenty of sunshine.

The sunniest day was the 12th with exactly seven hours of sun amid a monthly total of 79.6 hours. This was well above the expected 62.3 hours.

The month was also warmer than usual, helped by a mild last week. This took the mean maximum temperature to 9C, compared to an average 8.7C.

But the mean minimum temperature was 3.9C, just below the 4.2C average as the thermometer dipped as low as -3.2C on the 18th.

For the year, 2007 was much wetter overall than the previous year. It saw 720.8mm/28.38in fall against the previous 646.9mm/25.47in.

It was almost as sunny, however, with a total of 2,033.1 hours of sunshine against 2,039.6 hours.