Last month was the chilliest December in records stretching back 100 years and one of the coldest months ever recorded in the UK, the Met Office said yesterday.

And while globally 2010 has been one of the warmest years on record, provisional figures show that in the UK it was the 12th coldest year in records dating back to 1910.

Temperatures in this country averaged 8C over the year, the Met Office said.

The average temperature for December was -1 C, significantly colder than the long term average of 4.2 C and lower than the previous coldest December in 1981, when temperatures averaged 0.1 C over the month.

December was the coldest month in England and Wales since February 1986, the coldest in Scotland since February 1947 and in Northern Ireland it was the coldest on record.

It has emerged the Met Office informed the British government in October that this winter would be exceptionally cold, but did not inform the public.

Last month temperatures regularly plunged to between -10C and -20C overnight as the country was hit by exceptionally cold and snowy weather, while it struggled to get above freezing in many places during the day. But although December 2010 was cold and snowy, it was also relatively dry and sunny, the Met Office said. It was the third driest December since records began in 1910.