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Temperatures around 16 degrees: On January 1st, people look out over the sea in Southend on Sea, England
Photo: John Keeble / Getty Images
Great Britain started the new year with mild temperatures and has seen the warmest turn of the year since weather records began.
In London's St. James Park, the thermometer climbed to 16.2 degrees on the first day of the new year, according to the state weather service.
So far, the New Year's high had been 15.6 degrees, measured in Cornwall in 1916.
On New Year's Eve, 15.3 degrees had been measured in Coningsby, Lincolnshire, England.
"That means that it is the warmest New Year's Eve that has ever been registered in Great Britain," said the weather authority on the online service Twitter.
The previous record was measured on New Year's Eve 2011 in Colwyn Bay, Welsh.
At that time it was 14.8 degrees warm there.
In other parts of Great Britain too, New Year's Eve was as warm as never before.
London's Somerset House had to close its ice rink on the orders of the authorities, as the mild temperatures impaired the load-bearing capacity of the ice.
The British weather service announced that the high temperatures were caused by a "stream of warm, humid air from the Canary Islands".
Colder air flowing in from the north will cause a temperature drop in the middle of the week.
For the entire past year, Mike Kenden from the National Climate Information Center drew a report from the weather service that it was "slightly warmer and slightly drier than average" in Great Britain.
2021 is expected to be added to the list of the 20 warmest years in the UK since weather records began in 1884.
"Our climate is warming up," said the expert.
Temperatures too high in Germany too
In Germany, according to a balance sheet by the German Weather Service (DWD), 2021 was the eleventh year in a row that was too warm.
The average temperature of 9.1 degrees Celsius was 0.9 degrees above the value of the internationally valid reference period 1961 to 1990.
The World Weather Organization (WMO) announced in a preliminary report at the end of October that the years from 2015 to 2021 are likely to be the hottest years since weather records began.
Accordingly, 2021 is expected to be the fifth to seventh warmest year since records began, because the La Niña weather event had a cooling effect at the beginning of the year.
kah / AFP
