THE topsy-turvy weather which led up to York's dramatic floods has been revealed in official statistics compiled by the University of York.

Figures from a weather station at the Department of Electronics shows just how mild and wet December has been in the city.

It recorded almost 32 millimetres of rain - more than an inch - falling on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, which led to huge amounts of water coming down the River Foss.

Another 7mms fell on December 10 and again on December 12, and a further 5mms on Wednesday.

Temperatures never fell below freezing all month, with the lowest recorded minimum being 1.1 C on December 13. The minimum on December 19 was a remarkable 12.1 C, when the maximum reached a balmy 15.9 C - the kind of mild weather York might normally see in April or even May.

Several days saw maximum wind speeds of more than 40 mph in York as a series of Atlantic depressions swept across Britain, with the month's highest maximum wind speed being 56.7 mph, recorded on December 5.

The Met Office says Britain as a whole saw the warmest December on record, and it was the second wettest December in more than 100 years.

Experts have lined up to make the connection between the extreme weather and global warming.

Climate scientist Professor Piers Forster, from the University of Leeds, said: "There is no doubt in my mind that climate change is partly responsible for the flooding across the north of England. These floods are in part due to greenhouse gas emissions."

He said the unusually high temperatures resulted from the combined effect of a strong El Nino ocean-warming system in the Pacific and a man-made global warming trend.

Professor Myles Allan, from the University of Oxford, said: "The weather has changed, and we have changed it: get used to it."

After a dry New Year's Day, more unsettled weather is expected over York and North Yorkshire during the weekend, with rain at times, but North Yorkshire Police has said that the rainfall is not expected to have an impact on York's flood defences.