IS our weather barmy or balmy?

It's very much the latter as December opened to blue skies, super sunshine and temperatures of 12ºC.

And, according to Huddersfield forecaster Paul Stevens, we can look forward to more of the same.

The crazy English weather has been turned on its head this year.

Autumn has gone down in the record books as the warmest since the 1600s.

They've had problems keeping the ice rink in The Piazza frozen in the sunshine.

And trees by the millions are still covered in leaves, long after they would normally have fallen.

Across Huddersfield, people have been turning down the heating and enjoying the warm weather.

Stevens, a meteorologist from Salendine Nook, said: "Just enjoy the balmy weather.

"We have had a series of months from May in which temperatures have been above normal and it has put us in the record books.

"Month on month, we haven't seen record high temperatures but instead a series of days where it has remained very mild or warm.

"The average for November, for example is normally 7 or 8 degrees, but we have had 10 degrees.

"And on Thursday night, the thermometer never went below 9ºC, which is very mild. It meant yesterday, December 1, we had temperatures topping 12ºC (54ºF).

"It's the same across a huge swathe of Central England, stretching from the Bristol Channel to The Wash.

"The reason? There is a patch of high pressure sitting over Europe and the Alps and we are getting winds from the Azores and the Canaries, bringing warm and wet weather."

He said it could well continue into mid December, but then conditions are expected to change with temperatures dropping noticeably.

* This autumn has gone down as the warmest in central England since record-keeping began in 1659.

* 2006 is also on course to be the warmest ever, say meteorologists.

* The provisional mean temperature this year was 12.6°C (54°F). The previous highest figure for the equivalent period was 11.8°C (53°F), recorded in 1730.

* September's average temperature of 16.6°C (62°F) has not been equalled since 1729 and was 2.9°C (37°F) above the 30-year average.

* July temperatures of 19.9°C (68°F) were 3.4°C (38°F) above the 30-year average.

* November was the sunniest on record ever and the mildest in three years.

* Sunshine across England and Wales was 54% above the long-term average.