When Boxing Day felt like spring

ANYONE hoping for a white Christmas may well have been disappointed, but be patient; January has started off to be much colder, and if global warming has been put on hold, who knows what might happen.

There were eight frosts in December — the average is around 11 — the coldest being minus 5.1C — and the mean temperature of 6.3C is one-and-a-half degrees above the 30-year average. As a note of explanation, “frosts” refers to the temperature taken from a Stephenson’s screen at four feet above ground level.

The sun shone for more than 80 hours, with about 240 hours of daylight.

Rain fell (47mm) until the third week, then it became dry, with a little wind and low humidity. A former colleague of mine some 50 years ago told me that he once cut his lawn on Boxing Day. He being a Baptist lay preacher, I was inclined to believe him. Well, on December 27 and 28 the conditions were right, so I cut my grass. There may not be another opportunity for some time.

As for 2025, the first quarter was wet, the spring months were very dry, followed by a dry summer with average rainfall in the last quarter giving a total of 533mm for the year.

Thank you to Denis Gilbert, of Shiplake, for the statistics.