The New Year’s setting in the northern hemisphere tends to have snow or, at the very least, heavy winter coats. Not the case this year. With a national average temperature of 10.7°C, France has the hottest week between Christmas and New Year since records began in 1947. The United Kingdom, where thermometers have read more than 15°C in northeastern country this Friday (31), also set a heat record.
In Paris, sunny days and blue skies attract the French for a walk in the street or in the parks. With the high temperature, the beaches in the south of the country received an unexpected amount of tourists to enjoy the heat that reached 20°C in Montpellier on Thursday (30), eight degrees above normal for the season.
According to the French national agency Météo-France, the average temperature in the country between the 24th and 31st of December, of 10.7°C, is the highest since 1947, the oldest data, and is five degrees above the normal average (5.3°C). Prior to this year, winter heat records were recorded in 2002 and 2015.
The temperature records are explained by an anticyclone current that is bringing a subtropical air mass from North Africa to Europe, according to information from Franceinfo.
The rise in temperature and rainfall in France at the end of 2021, after an early December with heavy snow, have wreaked havoc in the Alps region. At the ski resort of Saint-Hilaire-du-Touvet, a funicular was buried by an avalanche of stones, according to information from local radio France Bleu Isère.
In the department of Isère, 17 roads were blocked by floods and avalanches caused by rain. Thousands of people will spend the New Year locked in some villages in the region.
UK’s hottest New Year
The UK has also been affected by this rise in temperatures. This Friday, the country registered its warmest New Year, according to the Met Office.
“Coningsby in Lincolnshire (East England) has a temperature of 15.3 degrees Celsius today, which means it is the warmest New Year on record in the UK,” the Met Office reported on its social networks.
The previous record was set in 2011, when the Welsh seaside town of Colwyn Bay scored 14.8°C.
The east and south of England, including the capital London, also record milder temperatures than expected for this winter period.
The UK as a whole has seen climate “slightly warmer and drier than average this year, but with variations across the country, particularly in terms of precipitation,” said Mike Kendon of the Office’s National Climate Information Center Met.
Despite the pleasant temperatures, both in France and in the United Kingdom, New Year’s Eve will not have big street parties due to the increase in Covid-19 cases.
For the second year in a row, the fireworks display on the Thames has been canceled in London. Typically, around 100,000 people come to the center to accompany the celebration.
In Paris, the party on the avenue Champs-Élysées was also canceled due to health measures and the French are banned from consuming alcohol on the streets of the country this New Year.
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