People in the Westcountry will be seeing in the New Year with higher temperatures than Madrid or Istanbul as Britain marks its second warmest winter on record.

As the region prepares to ring in 2012, temperatures are expected to reach highs of about 55.4F (13C), and up to 59F (15C) elsewhere in the UK, after a year of unseasonably mild weather.

Today is forecast to bring a New Year's Eve temperature of 55.4F (13C) in Plymouth and Truro, and 53.6F (12C) in Penzance, Cornwall, and in Minehead, Somerset.

Meanwhile, Madrid in Spain and Istanbul in Turkey are expected to be a cooler 46.4F (8C) today, dropping to 42.8F (6C) tonight.

Forecasters at the Exeter-based Met Office said the past 12 months have been the second warmest for the UK after 2006, which had an average temperature of 49.5F (9.73C), only slightly warmer than 2011's average temperature of 49.3F (9.62C).

Despite this year seeing high temperatures for long periods – including the warmest April and spring on record, the second warmest autumn and the warmest October day – early figures suggest the country is ending 2011 with a "close to average" December.

John Prior, national climate manager at the Met Office, said: "While it may have felt mild for many so far this December, temperatures overall have been close to what we would expect.

"It may be that the stark change from last year, which was the coldest December on record for the UK, has led many to think it has been unseasonably warm."

All bar one of the top ten warmest years on record have occurred since 1997 and all the UK's top seven warmest years happened in the last decade.

The warmest temperature recorded this year – 91.5F (33.1C) on June 27 at Gravesend in Kent – was the warmest temperature recorded in the UK for five years.

The warm autumn especially seemed to have a marked impact on flora and fauna. An abundance of holly, mistletoe and other berries such as sloe and hawthorn, far from being a predictor of cold and snow, has been seen as evidence of a warm coming spring, when the trees could produce more blossoms. Wildflowers burst forth again in November, and this month there have been reports of early daffodils in sheltered areas.

The coldest temperature was 8.6F (minus 13C) at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands on January 8, while the strongest gust of wind was 165mph (265.5kph), recorded at the summit of the Cairngorms on December 8.

The amount of rainfall also varied massively across the country. Scotland had its wettest year on record with 73.2in (1,859.5mm) of rain, beating the previous record set in 1990. But further south, parts of England had very low rainfall. East Anglia had its second driest year on record with just 17.6in (449mm).