People take a New Year’s Day walk on the South Bay Beach in Scarborough, north east England
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)The Met Office has said New Year’s Eve 2021 was provisionally the warmest on record with the temperature at Bala, in Wales, reaching 16.5C.
“Temperatures rose overnight in places, with Bala reaching 16.5C,” a tweet said.
“This makes New Year’s Eve 2021 provisionally the warmest on record.
“Despite this value occurring overnight, we use the 0900-0900 time period for historical records.”
Forecasters at the Met Office said temperatures may reach record highs on New Year’s Day.
The previous record temperature on New Year’s Day stands at 15.6C.
Forecaster Craig Snell said: “It has been a prolonged mild spell.”
Mr Snell added that the average temperature in December and the beginning of January is usually around 7C or 8C, and this year’s warmer temperatures have been due to a south-westerly wind making its way across the country.
He added that the higher temperatures are usually localised, but “plenty of places” have seen highs of 15C over December.
However, he said January could see a drop in temperatures.
On Friday, Somerset House in London confirmed it would be closing its ice rink on New Year’s Day due to warmer temperatures.
A spokesperson for Somerset House tweeted: “Skate update: Due to the effect of the on-going warm temperatures on the quality of the ice, we have had to make the difficult decision to also close our ice rink on 1 January. All customers are being contacted directly and given a full refund.
“We are currently dealing with very high level of customer inquiries so it may take us longer than usual to respond. We are very sorry for this inconvenience and are working hard to ensure we can re-open asap. We will update asap if there is any further impact on future dates.”
