If the Met Office confirms its provisional figures the country’s warm weather records will now be entirely dominated by post-2000 weather systems.
The UK has ‘almost certainly’ had its hottest summer on record, according to a spokesperson from the meteorological organisation. Currently, numbers point to an average mean temperature — which takes into account overnight lows and daytime highs — of 16.13C, a significant rise on the previous benchmark of 15.76C, set in 2018.
Only if temperatures for August come out as 4C cooler than normal will summer 2025 miss out on setting a brand new record. If and when this happens, it will mean the UK’s five hottest summers will have taken place since 2000. This includes 2022’s hottest day on record, when thermometers soared to 40.3C during July’s heatwave.
In comparison, recent months have seen lower highs but the weather has lasted much longer, with heatwave conditions reached on four separate occasions. Meanwhile, the country as a whole has received just 72% of its summer rainfall average. By this point in August precipitation should be at around 93%. Central, eastern and southern England have been particularly badly impacted, with spring now on record as being the driest in 50 years.
‘Provisional Met Office statistics show that summer 2025 will almost certainly be the warmest summer on record. At present, mean temperature is tracking at 16.13°C,’ said Met Office scientists, Emily Carlisle. ‘The current record is 15.76°C, set in 2018. So, unless temperatures are around four degrees below average for the rest of August — which the forecast does not suggest — it looks like the current record will be exceeded.
‘This would move 1976 out of the top five warmest summers since 1884, leaving all five warmest summers having occurred since the year 2000,’ she continued. ‘Of course, there are still a few days left of meteorological summer to go, but it’s very unlikely anything will stop summer 2025 from being the warmest on record.’
Image: JKalina / Unsplash
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