Last month was officially the coldest December since records began.

The Met Office at Ronaldsway says the average temperature was 2.7 Celsius and the mean minimum temperature was sub-zero, at minus 0.1 Celsius, the lowest figuure for any month since February 1986.

The lowest temperature recorded at Ronaldsway last month was minus 5.6 Celsius, on December 21.

There were 19 days with air frosts, and 23 days with ground frosts, both easily beating previous December records.

The frozen earth and the Arctic origin of the air saw snow covering the ground for the first three days of the month, and for a further 10 consecutive days from December 17, which was another record.

Clear, cold skies brought 75.9 hours of sunshine, which was almost double the December average, and a close second to December 2001, which produced 82.4 hours.