Provisional Met Office statistics confirm that summer 2025 is officially the warmest summer on record for the UK. Analysis by Met Office climate scientists has also shown that a summer as hot or hotter than 2025 is now 70 times more likely than it would be in a ‘natural’ climate with no human caused greenhouse gas emissions.
Met Office figures confirm summer 2025 is the warmest on record for the UK
Provisional Met Office statistics confirm that summer 2025 is officially the warmest summer on record for the UK. Analysis by Met Office climate scientists has also shown that a summer as hot or hotter than 2025 is now 70 times more likely than it would be in a ‘natural’ climate with no human caused greenhouse gas emissions.
Provisional Met Office statistics confirm that summer 2025 is officially the warmest summer on record for the UK. Analysis by Met Office climate scientists has also shown that a summer as hot or hotter than 2025 is now 70 times more likely than it would be in a ‘natural’ climate with no human caused greenhouse gas emissions.
The UK’s mean temperature from 1 June to 31 August stands at 16.10°C, which is 1.51°C above the long-term meteorological average. This surpasses the previous record of 15.76°C, set in 2018, and pushes the summer of 1976 out of the top five warmest summers in a series dating back to 1884.
Met Office scientist Dr Emily Carlisle said:
“Provisional Met Office statistics show that summer 2025 is officially the warmest on record with a mean temperature of 16.10°C, surpassing the previous record of 15.76°C set in 2018.
“The persistent warmth this year has been driven by a combination of factors including the domination of high-pressure systems, unusually warm seas around the UK and the dry spring soils. These conditions have created an environment where heat builds quickly and lingers, with both maximum and minimum temperatures considerably above average.”
1976, which had a mean temperature of 15.70°C, has now dropped out of the top five warmest summers since records began in 1884, leaving all five warmest summers having occurred since 2000.
The five warmest UK summers on record are now 2025, 2022, 2018, 2006 and 2003.
Impact of climate change on record-breaking summer
Rapid analysis by Met Office climate scientists using peer-reviewed methods described in this technical report has shown that a summer temperature as high as 2025 has been made around 70 times more likely because of human induced climate change.
June and July both delivered consistently above-average temperatures. England recorded its warmest June on record, while Wales and the UK overall saw their third and second warmest Junes respectively. July continued the trend, making it the UK’s fifth warmest July on record.
Summer 2025 has seen four heatwaves, each relatively short-lived and interspersed with near-average conditions. The highest temperature recorded was 35.8°C in Faversham, Kent. This is just below the peak temperature of 35.9°C recorded in 1976 and also below the UK’s all-time high of 40.3°C, set in July 2022.
The summer of 1976 remains iconic, with 16 days exceeding 32°C, compared to nine days in 2025. The persistence of the 1976 heatwave means that 1976 still holds the record for the highest average summer maximum temperature, while the persistent warmth of 2025 means it holds the record for mean temperature.
Head of climate attribution at the Met Office, Dr Mark McCarthy, said:
“Our analysis shows that the summer of 2025 has been made much more likely because of the greenhouse gases humans have released since the industrial revolution. In a natural climate, we could expect to see a summer like 2025 with an approximate return period of around 340 years, while in the current climate we could expect to see these sorts of summers roughly 1 in every 5 years.
“Another interesting finding from our analysis is the context of this summer against other record-breaking summers, like that of 1976. Our analysis suggests that while 2025 has set a new record, we could plausibly experience much hotter summers in our current and near-future climate and shows how what would have been seen as extremes in the past are becoming more common in our changing climate"
Higher temperatures no longer anomalies and becoming the new normal
Climate projections indicate that UK summers will continue to become hotter, a trend already evident.
The Met Office says climate change is reshaping our understanding of what constitutes a record-breaking summer. As baseline temperatures steadily rise, so too do peak temperatures and the frequency of warm spells. What was once considered exceptional is increasingly becoming typical. Against this elevated climate backdrop, higher temperatures are no longer anomalies, they’re becoming the new normal.
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