ONE story dominated the headlines in December after a massive water outage that left almost 60,000 homes without supplies for two days.
Southern Water faced a storm of criticism after a "technical issue" at the Testwood Water Supply Works resulted in taps running dry in Southampton Totton, Romsey, and parts of the New Forest.
Vulnerable customers said they had been abandoned, while other consumers complained about "chaos" surrounding the provision of bottled water.
These affected included Swaythling couple Jason and Donna Kempson, who are both battling serious health problems. Southern Water failed to deliver bottled water, even though they were on the priority register.
Southern Water's chief executive, Lawrence Gosden, admitted that customers on the Priority Services Register were "poorly served".
The company pledged to pay nearly £10m in compensation and also outlined plans to spend more than £50m on making the supply works more reliable.
The emergency services had another busy month.
Three Saints fans cheated death when a car crushed their Uber, tragically killing the other driver. They were travelling home to Hedge End after watching Saints play Brighton when the crash happened in West Sussex.
Armed police raided a block of flats in Southampton after a man was spotted carrying a gun.
A 43-year-old man was arrested at a property in Weston Lane on suspicion of possessing a firearm. Officers also seized a BB gun.
In Shirley, a fire ripped through a former Barclays bank building in High Street, forcing customers in a neighbouring bar to flee.
A few days later Hampshire was battered by heavy rain and 60mph winds as Storm Darragh swept across the region, uprooting trees, damaging buildings, and causing widespread travel chaos.
Part of University Hospital Southampton was evacuated after a chemical spill.
Workers were told to leave one of the buildings as fire crews from Redbridge and St Mary's rushed to the scene. They worked with hospital staff to detect and monitor the spillage and ventilate the site.
Two 18-year-old men were arrested after 19-year-old Tawana Choruma was fatally stabbed near Netley station.
Dominic Adeyemi, of Holmes Close in Netley Abbey, and Jack Hibberd, of no fixed address, have both been charged with murder.
December also saw another batch of proposals to transform Southampton, including a project to upgrade St Mary's Stadium, redevelop neighbouring land, and open up the waterfront.
It also emerged that a developer wants to build student accommodation on part of the car park behind the Dolphin Hotel in Southampton High Street.
Meanwhile, the Hythe-Southampton ferry service remained suspended due to a damaged pontoon.
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