DECEMBER was an outstanding month, though perhaps for the wrong reasons, unless you relish really cold, wet weather.

With plenty of snow and including a notably white Christmas, it revived many memories of the winters we used to have.

It looked ominous when the snow started tumbling down on the 17th. Not in the last 30 years has there been a prolonged and widespread icy spell in the week or so before the festive period.

At Carlton, near Stokesley, only in 2001 was there an appreciable snowfall, 13cm (5ins) on the 22nd, but this had all disappeared by the 24th. This time, it extended into the new year, too.

So, in most places, it was the snowiest December since at least 1981, whichever way this is defined – days with it falling, lying or its cumulative depth.

It was generally the coldest month since December 1995 and it was another 15 years before that when there was a similarly chilly December.

Such very cool months, say more than 2C (4F) below the 1971-2000 average, are rare in the present era. Typically, you would expect them about once a year, but the previous one was as long ago as March 1996.

Although my colleague, Paul Hignett, measured -14C (7F) at Pickering, coldest minima were mainly around -8C (17.5F), the lowest in any December since 1995.

Unusually, for a cold winter month, it was also a wet one away from the Dales. Excesses were up to 50pc at Carlton, so it was my third wettest December in my logs after those of 1990 and 1983. There were no great amounts on any one day but here, at least, neither were there any completely dry days.

I don’t remember this happening before in any month.

Cold snaps can produce some interesting spectacles, like the huge snowflakes that fell at Carlton on the 24th. They were up to 6cm (2.5ins) in diameter, some resembling small shuttlecocks as they descended.

The first half of the month was dominated by changeable southwesterly winds. Even so, temperatures were mostly only about normal as their source was largely in the north of the Atlantic.

Then, the wind suddenly switched into a north-easterly quarter. This flow originated initially for a couple of days from Siberia and, after that, from the Arctic.

The breeze became more variable after a few more days but the cold, dense air-mass that had settled over us, could not be budged, with occasional further top-ups from the north.

Worryingly, we are overdue a hard January – the last was 30 years ago. Also, we have experienced record low temperatures in early March, as mentioned, and the infamous winter of 1947 carried right on until the end of that month.

Weather facts – December

At Carlton in Cleveland. – Mean max: 4.7C, 40.5F (2.5C, 4.5F); Mean min 0.2C, 31.5F (2C, 4F); Highest max 11.6C, 53F, 5th; Lowest min 8.7C, 16.5F, 20th; Total rainfall: 103mm, 4.1ins (+36mm, 1.4ins); Wettest day: 15mm, 0.6ins, 14th and no of rain days, with 0.2mm (0.01ins) or more: 28 (+12).

(Figures in brackets show the difference from the 26-year mean, 1983- 2008)