New Year's Eve 2021 warmest on record with temperatures peaking in Welsh town Bala

The Met Office has said New Year's Eve 2021 was provisionally the warmest on record with the temperature at Bala 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."

The new year is expected to get off to a warm start following on from a mild December and the record-breaking New Year's Eve.

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 and the Met Office is expecting highs of 14C or 15C.

Forecaster Craig Snell said: "It's not out of the realms of possibility.

"It is the first time since December 2016 that we have had three consecutive days reach 15C. It has been a prolonged mild spell.

"It may break records tomorrow (New Year's Day), but I was much more confident we would see record-breaking temperatures on New Year's Eve because the record for New Year's Day is a bit higher.

"It will still be an exceptionally mild start to 2022."

Met Office forecaster Dan Stroud urged people to "make the most of the warmth because a change is on the way as we go into the early part of next week".

Daytime temperatures are expected to plunge to as low as 3C in Edinburgh by Tuesday and 7C in London and Cardiff.

He said: "We are going to be losing the sub-tropical air flow and replacing it with some things from the north.

"Temperatures will definitely go back to average, with a return of frost and some snow in the forecast across north areas and across the hills."