UK experienced its hottest summer on record in 2025, Met Office says
The UK has seen its hottest summer on record, the Met Office has said, after the country sweltered under four heatwaves in a single season.
The mean temperature for meteorological summer, which encompasses the months of June, July and August, was 16.1C, which is significantly above the current record of 15.76C set in 2018.
All five of the warmest summers on record have now occurred since 2000 – a clear signal of the global heating that scientists say is resulting from increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
June and July had warm weather, with four heatwaves including days above 30C. There has been very little rain across much of the country, with England experiencing what the government has called “nationally significant” water shortfalls. Much of England is under a hosepipe ban as reservoirs, rivers and groundwater run dry.
Although the summer has been consistently warm, there has not been extreme heat. The highest temperature recorded to date for 2025 was 35.8C in Faversham, Kent, on 1 July, well short of the UK’s all-time high of 40.3C set in July 2022.
But June alone saw two heatwaves, making it the hottest June on record for England, and the second warmest for the UK overall. Then a third heatwave in July and a fourth in August pushed the overall average temperature for the summer into record breaking territory.
Towards the end of June, scientists calculated that the heat endured by people in the south-east of England had been made 100 times more likely by the climate crisis.
Meteorologists have said this year’s consistent warmth was driven by dry ground from spring, high-pressure systems, and unusually warm seas around the UK, and minimum temperatures had been exceptionally above average.
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