This year is set to be Britain’s fifth warmest on record, provisional Met Office statistics suggest.
According to the forecaster, the average temperature for 2017 will be warmer than both 2015 and 2016, but will be cooler than 2014, 2006, 2011 and 2007.
The nine warmest years since 1910 have occurred after 2000, with 2014 clinching the title as the hottest when the mean temperature was 9.91C, the Met Office said.
Provisional figures for the past 12 months suggest the mean UK temperature will be 9.56C, or 0.72C above the 1981-2010 long-term average.
Dr Mark McCarthy, manager of the Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre, said: “Although the year is likely to be the fifth warmest in the UK since 1910, many people will probably remember the year for some of its more notable weather events.
“Events like ex-hurricane Ophelia, which in October brought high winds and disruption to parts of Ireland and the UK, and memorably for some drew up dust from the Sahara and smoke from the wildfires in Iberia, giving us the appearance of sunset at midday.”
The sun beat down on Wimbledon in July (Adam Davy/PA Wire/PA Images)
Despite recent snowfall and plunging temperatures, the Met Office said the mean temperature for December is likely to be 0.4C above the 1981-2010 long-term average.
And with warnings of heavy rain across the new year weekend, the forecaster said the UK has only received 78% of precipitation expected for December so far.
Tim Legg, of the Met Office, said “many places have had a rather dry month”, with much of the rainfall recorded during mid-December and the final week.
The forecaster said that when considered as a whole, 2017 has been a rather average year for rain, with a UK-wide average rainfall of just 1,106.8mm – 95.9% of the long-term average.
According to Met Office figures, all of the UK countries received below-average rainfall, with Scotland being the driest relative to average, where only 94.9% of the long-term average fell.
Meanwhile Wales was the wettest, with 98.6% of the long-term average rainfall.