The Met Office has provisionally recorded the highest minimum temperature for Christmas Day on record – though much of the UK still had a grey and damp 25 December.

Temperatures measured at Exeter airport and East Malling, Kent, did not fall below 12.4C, beating the previous record of 11.5C measured at Waddon in Croydon in 1983.

In terms of maximum temperatures, the mercury hit 13.2C at Exeter airport and Merryfield in Somerset, making Monday the warmest Christmas Day since 2018, when meteorologists recorded 13.3C.

Previous Met Office research has found that record temperatures have been made more likely because of human-induced climate breakdown.