Climate change has raised UK temperatures by around 1 Degree Celsius so far, says the latest report by weather office. (Agence France-Presse photo)
Britain has just experienced its wettest month in more than a century, the MeT Office said today.
Citing provisional figures, the weather department said December, 2015 was the wettest month for the country in over 100 years.
It was also the warmest since records began in 1910, with temperatures hitting 7.9 Degree Celsius, making it feel more like a day in April or May.
Overall, 2015 was the sixth wettest year, the BBC reported, quoting the data.
Record amounts of rain fell in storm-hit Scotland, Wales and the north west of England.
The UK mean temperature for the year of 9.2 Degree Celsius was warm but not exceptional, said the MeT office, and not quite hot enough to beat the 2014 record of 9.9 Degree Celsius.
The MeT Office says there is a direct link between the warmth and the record rains that brought widespread floods across Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.
Storms propelled by the jet stream were mainly to blame, it says, with contributions from the El Nino weather phenomenon and man-made climate change.
December was something of a freak month, it acknowledges. Climate change has raised UK temperatures by around 1 Degree Celsius so far, so it will be many decades before this level of extreme weather becomes the new winter norm, it says.
Other scientists say that with climate change, there will be no "normal" weather.
The weather department has said storms Desmond, Eva and Frank were behind the record rainfall, while a humid south-westerly airflow kept it warm.
Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and northern England bore the brunt of the storms, as central and southern England escaped the worst of it.