Britain Records Hottest Summer Ever, Met Office Says
Britain's summer of 2025 was its hottest on record, with a mean temperature of 16.5°C, surpassing last year's record.
Britain has recorded its hottest summer since records began in 1884, the national weather service confirmed on Tuesday. The season, marked by successive heatwaves, minimal rainfall, and destructive wildfires, broke the previous record set just a year ago.
The Met Office's provisional data shows a mean average temperature of 16.5°C (61.7°F) for the summer, exceeding the 16.1°C (61°F) recorded in 2025. That figure itself had beaten the 15.7°C (60.2°F) mark set in 2018. All of the top five hottest summers on record have occurred since 2003.
Officials attribute the rising temperatures to human-induced climate change. Amy Doherty, head of the National Climate Information Center, noted that records are now breaking with increasing frequency. "Particularly notable is how much we’ve exceeded the previous summer mean temperature record, set just last year," she said.
The Met Office calculated that human-caused climate change made such a hot summer 130 times more likely. Without greenhouse gas emissions, a summer this hot would be expected once in a millennium; now, it is anticipated once every nine years.
Heatwaves began in late May and recurred each month, including two in July. The peak temperature of 38°C (100.4°F) in Norfolk on June 26 set a record for that month, while the mercury climbed to 38.1°C (100.6°F) in London on August 13, the hottest day of the year.
The U.K. Health Security Agency estimated that 2,877 deaths in England were associated with the May and June heatwaves. England, Wales, and Northern Ireland all set records for mean summer temperatures, while Scotland tied its sixth warmest summer. All of Wales and most of England remain in drought conditions.
Minister of Climate Transition Katie White described the summer as a "brutal reminder" of the realities of climate change. "With kids too hot to sleep, families worrying about older relatives, farmers watching fields dry out, and firefighters and our armed forces battling wildfires, we’ve all woken up to a reality none of us wants," she said.