An unseasonably mild New Year’s Day has hit Greater Manchester but the relatively warm weather may not last for long.
Temperatures of 15C have been recorded in the city centre and elsewhere in the UK, temperatures have reached a positively balmy 16.5C.
According to The Mirror, it makes it the warmest New Year’s Day ever.
READ MORE: Best New Year’s Day walks in Greater Manchester to enjoy with your family
The unusually mild weather is caused by low pressure over Ireland dragging warm air up from the coast of Africa.
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”.
Tonight is set to bring showers and temperatures will drop to around 7C, the Met Office predicts.
However as we head into next week, the weather is likely to become more wet and windy, with frosty mornings across the UK.
By Wednesday (January 5) there could be short flurries of snow in the region, especially over hilly areas.
According to the current Met Office forecast, there could be snow showers in the early hours of Thursday morning in parts of the region – including Tameside and Oldham.
(Image: Manchester Evening News)
Despite the mild weather, Met Office data also shows only three Decembers in 100 years have had less sunshine than December 2021.
Forecaster Craig Snell, of the Met Office, said: “One of the reasons we’re getting the dull weather is the fact that it’s been so mild. We’re drawing in south-westerly wind from the Atlantic and it’s also drawing in a lot of moisture.’
“It keeps us warm but also produces a lot of cloud. The globe is warming up so expect our winters to get milder.
“We always have milder spells throughout the year, so we can’t link every mild spell to climate change, but we can say that extremes in our weather will become more common as we continue through this century.”
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