2025 might just beat every UK heat record yet
The UK is on course for its warmest year on record, according to provisional data from the Met Office.
The mean temperature for 2025 up to 21 December is currently ahead of the previous highest year set in 2022.
A forecasted colder spell into early 2026 may still affect the final figure, meaning confirmation will follow in the new year.
If confirmed, four of the last five years will feature among the UK’s top five warmest since records began in 1884.
All ten of the UK’s warmest years have occurred within the last two decades.
The projected annual mean temperature for 2025 stands at 10.05°C, compared with 10.03°C in 2022, 9.97°C in 2023, 9.88°C in 2014, and 9.79°C in 2024.
If verified, this will be only the second time the UK’s mean temperature has exceeded 10°C in recorded history.
Mike Kendon, a senior scientist in the Met Office’s climate information team, said: “If confirmed at year end this will be the second annual UK temperature record for the UK this decade with the previous being in 2022. This should come as no surprise. Over the last four decades we have seen the UK’s annual temperature rise by around 1.0°C. We will have to wait for the year end before confirming 2025’s final number, but at this stage it looks more likely than not that 2025 will be confirmed as the warmest year on record for the UK.”
“However, it will not be long until this record is broken again. Since the start of the 21st Century a new record has been set for UK annual mean temperature no less than six times – in 2002, 2003, 2006, 2014, 2022 and now 2025 (if confirmed) – each record progressively warmer than the last. In terms of our climate, we are living in extraordinary times. The changes we are seeing are unprecedented in observational records back to the 19th Century.”
The Met Office said a full analysis of climate statistics for the UK, its nations and regions will be published in the New Year.
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