It was not a ‘white Christmas’ but a rather wet one. The thermometer rose a little during daylight hours to a maximum of 10.3C at 15.00.
The temperature began to fall significantly from 8pm and was reading just 4.4C at 22.00.
This morning there is the suggestion of a ground frost with the thermometer falling to a low of 2.6C at dawn.
Drizzle and rain showers occurred from mid-morning but the real deluge started just after 8pm when the heavens opened and during the course of the next couple of hours the total reached 12.3mm. This was the second wettest day in December following the very wet day on the 9th with 14.8mm. That brought the December total to 68.6mm, still 20mm short of the 33-year December average.
As the vigorous rain band approached in the evening the wind became very strong with a peak gust of 40mph at 20.02. The barometric pressure, having fallen steadily all day, began to build rapidly from a low of 992.8mb at 20.10.
I have installed three slider pictures of Marlborough in the snow as we did not get a ‘white Christmas’!