UK climate now hotter, sunnier: weather agency

LONDON

The U.K. climate is profoundly different compared to typical British weather last century, with constantly rising temperatures and frequent extreme events, the nation’s meteorological office said in a report on July 15.

“The observational evidence demonstrates that what we regard as our ‘normal’ climate in terms of the hottest and coldest spells of weather we would typically expect has very significantly changed from what it was through most of the 20th century,” the Met Office report said.

The U.K. experienced two unprecedented heat waves in May and June with monthly records in England set at 35.1 degrees Celsius and 37.7 degrees Celsius, respectively.

The U.K., meanwhile, experienced its hottest recorded year in 2025, with an average temperature of 10.1 degrees. It was also the sunniest year since 1910.
Britain’s spring and summer combined saw a mean maximum temperature anomaly of plus 2.1 degrees, the Met Office report said.

Total sunshine was 125 percent of the 1991-2020 average, “by far the warmest and sunniest such period on record.”

Britain’s coast has not been spared either. Waters bordering the U.K. experienced 297 days of marine heat wave conditions in 2025, the most since 1982 and far exceeding the previous record of 178 days in 2023.