UK chalks up hottest summer on record for second year running
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LONDON: Britain experienced its hottest summer on record for the second year in a row, the UK's national weather agency announced Tuesday (Sep 1), after weeks of successive heatwaves and widespread drought conditions.
"Summer 2026 is provisionally the UK's warmest summer on record with the season's mean temperature made around 130 times more likely due to human-induced climate change," the Met Office said.
The UK measured an average temperature of 16°C between June and August, breaking the previous record of 16.1°C set in 2025.
Scientists warn that climate change is making extreme weather events more intense and resulting in heat records tumbling with increasing frequency.
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Some 33 countries, spanning from western Europe to the Sahel and central America, recorded their hottest July since records began this year, according to AFP analysis of data from the European Union's Copernicus climate observatory.
The UK experienced its second-hottest July on record, as England chalked up its warmest June earlier this summer, which saw multiple temperature records being set during intense heatwaves.
And almost three-quarters of England and all of Wales were plunged into drought as rainfall slowed down to a trickle.
"These records are now breaking with increasing frequency, reflecting the influence of human-induced climate change on the temperatures we're experiencing in the UK," said Amy Doherty from the Met Office.
"Particularly notable is how much we've exceeded the previous summer mean temperature record, set just last year."
The weather agency's analysis found that greenhouse gas emissions as a result of human activity made this summer's record temperatures 130 times more likely.
"In a climate unaffected by human emissions of greenhouse gases, a summer like this would be exceptionally unlikely," said Met Office meteorologist Mark McCarthy.
Climate experts have also warned the government that Britain is not ready for the consequences of climate change, with homes and public infrastructure not built for warmer, drier summers.
Record-breaking heatwaves in May and June led to an estimated 2,877 excess deaths in England, according to the UK's Health Security Agency, almost double the tally of the whole of the summer in 2025.
"Climate projections indicate that UK summers will continue to become hotter, a trend already evident in the observations," the Met Office added.
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