Average annual temperature breaks records reaching above 10°C

For the first time, the average annual temperature in the UK was more than 10°C, the Met Office announced today.  

The national weather service confirmed the news after calculations found the mean temperature in 2022 was 10.03°C, breaking the previous record of 9.88°C in 2014.  

This makes 2022 the hottest year on record, which the Met Office projected in the summer, as temperatures reached a record-breaking 40°C.

Average temperatures last year were also 0.89°C above the 1991-2020 average, showing how the earth is heating up as the climate crisis persists.  

Met Office Climate Attribution Scientist, Dr Nikos Christidis, said the team modelled the likelihood of average temperatures reaching 10°C in a world with and without the effects of human-induced climate change.  

‘The results showed that recording 10°C in a natural climate would occur around once every 500 years, whereas in our current climate it could be as frequently as once every three to four years,’ he said.  

‘We also used climate models to project how often this sort of temperature could be recorded in the future. It was possible to calculate that by the end of the century, under a medium emissions scenario (SSP2-4.5), a UK average temperature of 10°C could occur almost every year.’  

Extreme heat is likely to become more frequent and more devastating as temperatures continue to climb, climate scientists have warned. 

This trend is already becoming apparent, as the 10 hottest years since 1884 were recorded in the past two decades.  

Head of the Met Office National Climate Information Centre, Dr Mark McCarthy, said: ‘It is clear from the observational record that human induced global warming is already impacting the UK’s climate.’  

The UK has not recorded a top ten coldest year in 60 years, with most of the coldest annual temperatures reported before 1920.  

Last year saw wildfires almost quadruple, while drought was declared in several areas across the country, including Devon and Cornwall, areas of London, East Anglia and Lincolnshire.  

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters