page_title: Winter of 2010–11 in Great Britain and Ireland
section_title: December 2010
hierarchical_section_title: Winter of 2010–11 in Great Britain and Ireland / Timeline / December 2010
caption_attribution_description: Snow in Ireland taken by the Aqua satellite
context_page_description: The winter of 2010–11 was a weather event that brought heavy snowfalls, record low temperatures, travel chaos and school disruption to the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. It included the United Kingdom's coldest December since Met Office records began in 1910, with a mean temperature of -1 °C, breaking the previous record of 0.1 °C in December 1981. Also it was the second-coldest December in the narrower Central England Temperature record series which began in 1659, falling 0.1 °C short of the all-time record set in 1890. Although data has never officially been compiled, December 2010 is thought to be colder than December 1890 over the United Kingdom as a whole, as Scotland was up to 2 °C warmer than England. Hence, it is thought to be the coldest December across the UK as a whole since before 1659.
  The winter of 2010 in England saw the earliest widespread winter snowfall since 1993 with snow falling as early as 24 November across Northumberland and North Yorkshire. A maximum snow depth of 30 inches was recorded on 1 December in the Peak District, Sheffield, Doncaster, the Cotswold Hills and the Forest of Dean.
context_section_description: According to the Manley Central England Temperature record (beginning in 1659), the second-coldest December ever recorded in central England. Also the coldest December in the UK since UK records began in 1890, and the coldest December in Ireland since official records began.
  In early December, a minimum of -21.1 °C was recorded at Altnaharra, Scottish Highlands. A band of snow moving north affected Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, South and West Yorkshire, giving significant accumulations here, with further frequent heavy snow showers to North East England and Eastern Scotland. Up to 40 cm of snow was recorded in Rotherham and Sheffield, 20 cm of fresh snow in Mansfield (bringing total depths to over 30 cm), 20 to 30 cm in Leeds, 30 cm in Pontefract and up to 40 cm in parts of Lincolnshire.
  On 3 December, an all-time record low of -17.9 °C recorded at RAF Leeming (since records began at Leeming in 1945) and -19.0 °C at RAF Topcliffe in North Yorkshire.
  By 6 December, snowfall in the Central Belt in Scotland led to the closure of the M8 motorway for two days with hundreds of motorists stranded overnight. The resulting political furore led to the resignation of Scottish Minister for Transport, Stewart Stevenson.
  By mid-December, a cold front reached the Shetland Isles and moved southwards across Scotland. Mild air preceded the front, with cold air straight from the Arctic following it, resulting in some rapid temperature drops throughout Scotland and its Isles. An unofficial temperature of 11.6 °C, the highest of the month so far, was recorded near Lairg, Scottish Highlands at around 7pm in the milder air. The cold front continued to move southwards across the UK passing Northern Ireland and Northern England. 
  Later in December, the M5 became gridlocked, and shops in the Birmingham area closed early on the last Saturday before Christmas. A number of passengers travelling by coach had to spend the night at Birmingham Coach Station due to not only coaches for onwards destinations being unable to depart and arrive Birmingham, but also widespread disruption to train services making onwards alternatives impossible. Airports including Heathrow Airport closed some its runways for a time, with Gatwick also cancelling a number of flights.
  A minimum temperature of -19.6 °C was recorded in Shawbury, Shropshire. And a minimum temperature of -17.6 °C was recorded at Castlederg, a new record for Northern Ireland and -19.6 °C was recorded at Chesham, Buckinghamshire. Heavy snow fall was also reported over large parts of Devon causing major travel disruption. Dublin Airport and City of Derry Airport were forced to fully close, 15 cm (6 inches) of snow was recorded at Dublin Airport. Only three days after breaking the record minimum for Northern Ireland, Castlederg broke the record again with a low of -18.7 °C.
  On 24 December, it was decided to cancel the 27th IRFU's Celtic League meeting with Leinster as Ulster's Ravenhill pitch froze under heavy snow. Both northern and southern Ireland were under heavy snow.
  25 December 2010 was also the coldest Christmas Day since 1830, with a CET of -5.9 °C. The Republic of Ireland's lowest-ever December temperature on record was also recorded on Christmas Day, at -17.5 °C at Straide, County Mayo. 
  At the end of December, thousands of homes and businesses in Northern Ireland and Wales were without water as melting snow and ice revealed many burst pipes. Northern Ireland Water said it was alternating supplies from reservoirs in order to help alleviate the crisis in which some properties had been without supplies since before Christmas.
caption: Photograph of snow in Ireland taken by the NASA Aqua satellite on 2 December 2010
exif: {}