2025 set to be hottest UK year on record, says Met Office
Britain could have the hottest year on record, forecasters say, with a warning that we are now living in “extraordinary times”.
The Met Office said 2025 is on track to take the top spot, possibly overtaking 2022, after a hot summer and mild temperatures for much of the year.
So far, the average annual temperature is at 10.05C, ahead of the previous record of 10.03C set in 2022.
The cold weather expected over Christmas means the final figure is yet to be confirmed.
If approved, 2025 would be only the second year in the observation record that the UK’s average annual temperature has risen above 10°C.
Four of the last five years will be among the five warmest years since records began in 1884, and all 10 of the warmest years will have occurred in the last two decades.
Mike Kendon is a senior scientist in the Met Office’s climate information team. He said: “If confirmed at the end of the year, this would be the second annual temperature record set in the UK this decade, with the previous being in 2022. This should come as no surprise.
“Over the last four decades we have seen annual temperatures in the UK rise by around 1.0°C. We will have to wait until the end of the year to confirm the final figure for 2025, but at this stage it seems unlikely that 2025 will be confirmed as the warmest year on record for the UK.”
“But it won’t be long before this record is broken again. Since the turn of the 21st century, a new record for annual average temperature in the UK has been set at least six times – in 2002, 2003, 2006, 2014, 2022 and now in 2025 (if confirmed) – each record being increasingly hotter than the last.
“We are living in extraordinary times for our climate. The changes we are seeing are unprecedented in observational records dating back to the 19th century.”
Friederike Otto, professor of climate science, said: “The finding is devastating and not at all surprising; 10C may not sound very hot, but it is an average and means much higher temperatures in the summer; high 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 Institute for Research 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 for us to stop warming by leading the world in reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible.”
