The UK has experienced its warmest New Year’s Eve on record, with temperatures reaching more than 15C (59F) and customers being turned away from ice rinks that had melted. The record was broken twice in one day, with the Met Office recording 14.9C at 11am on Friday in Ryehill, in East Yorkshire, and 15.3C about an hour later in Coningsby, in Lincolnshire. The previous 31 December high was 14.8C, observed in Colwyn Bay in north Wales in 2011. At Somerset House, one of London’s most popular event venues, the unseasonably warm temperature forced the closure of the ice rink attraction on Thursday and Friday, with similar scenes at the ice rink in Hampton Court in Surrey. In Berkshire, some people had New Year’s Eve ice creams, as visitors to Windsor enjoyed the alfresco cafes. The Met Office said temperatures would continue to climb across the country later on Friday, before falling slightly at night as the UK rings in 2022. Areas of southern and eastern England, including the West Country, London and Lincolnshire, were expected to experience the warmest weather. Revellers in some parts of the UK will have to brace for rain in the evening, with light drizzle expected across pockets of eastern and southern England and north Wales. However, the overall picture was “exceptionally mild”, with temperatures of 14.5C in Hawarden, north Wales, and 14.2C in Yeovil, Somerset, reported on Friday morning, forecasters said. In Bournemouth, on England’s south coast, people strolled along the seafront enjoying the mild weather. It came after what was likely to have been Britain’s dullest December since the 1950s, with less than 27 hours of sunlight across the country on average. The Met Office said there had been just 26.6 hours of sunshine over 30 days – 38% less than the national average for this time of year. The figure places this month in the running to become one of the 10 dreariest Decembers on record, forecasters said. Britain’s dullest December was in 1956, when 19.5 hours of sunlight was the national average, while the brightest was in 2001, with 64 hours recorded on average across the UK. The Met Office forecaster Craig Snell said the dull weather was linked to milder temperatures across winter generally, which are likely to be due to the climate crisis. “One of the reasons we’re getting the dull weather is the fact that it’s been so mild. We’re drawing in south-westerly wind from the Atlantic and it’s also drawing in a lot of moisture. It keeps us warm but it also produces a lot of cloud,” he said. “The globe is warming up, so we would expect our winters to be milder than they were.”