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UK Forecasters say this could be the hottest year on record, with warnings that we are currently living in “extraordinary times”.
weather office That said, after a scorching heat and mild summer, 2025 is probably on track to overtake 2022 to take the top spot. temperature During most of the year.
So far, the average annual temperature is clocking in at 10.05C, exceeding the previous record of 10.03C, set in 2022.
Forecasts of cold over Christmas mean the final figures have not yet been confirmed.
If confirmed, 2025 will be only the second year in the observational record where the UK annual average temperature has risen above 10C.
Four of the past five warmest years since records began in 1884 will appear in the top five warmest years, with all of the top 10 warmest years occurring in the past two decades.
Mike Kendon is a senior scientist in the Climate Information Team at the Met Office. He said: “If confirmed later in the year it would be the second annual UK temperature record this decade, the previous record being in 2022. It should come as no surprise.
“Over the past four decades we have seen UK annual temperatures rise by around 1.0°C. We will have to wait until the end of the year before we can confirm the final numbers for 2025, but at this stage it seems more likely that 2025 will be confirmed as the hottest year on record for the UK.
“However, it will not be long before this record is broken again. A new record for UK annual average temperature has been set no less than six times since the start of the 21st century – in 2002, 2003, 2006, 2014, 2022 and now in 2025 (if confirmed) – with each record being progressively warmer than the last.
“In terms of our climate, we are living in extraordinary times. The changes we are seeing are unprecedented in the observational record dating back to the 19th century.”
Professor of climate science Friederike Otto said: “This finding is devastating and completely surprising, 10C may not sound very hot, but it is an average and it means that much higher temperatures in the summer, higher temperatures that would never have been possible are now common and that is not good news.”
Bob Ward, director of policy and communications at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said: “This is further evidence of the impacts of climate change in the UK, and the urgent need to stop warming by leading the world in reaching net zero emissions of greenhouse gases as quickly as possible.”