Record-breaking and extreme weather is happening more often in the UK as our climate changes. The latest assessment of the UK s climate highlights heat and rainfall extremes but also changes in sea level rise, and the number of snow and frost events.
The Met Office calls it an annual stocktake of the UK climate, supported by the Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme. On Monday, 14th July 2025, the State of the UK Climate report is revealed; examining trends, new records, and shifting patterns as our global climate warms.
“Record-breaking and extreme weather has become increasingly commonplace in the UK as our climate has changed over the last few decades. “ Met Office
The top image shows the cumulative amount of rain for the winter half-year leading into the start of 2024. October 2023 to March 2024 was the wettest winter half-year on record for England and Wales in over 250 years. There was widespread flooding in Sept 23 and January 24 as named storms drenched parts of the UK, causing flooding. It's hard to believe that we have now swung the other way with parts of England under hosepipe bans.
For temperatures, the last three years have been in the UK’s top five warmest on record, with 2024 the fourth warmest year in records dating back to 1884. 2024 brought the UK’s second warmest February, warmest May and the warmest spring on record.
Baselines are shifting, and this is important as we discuss above or below average. The reference period in the new report is 1991-2020, the latest 30-year period of data. The Met Office offers other, earlier reference periods on their anomaly maps, which allow people to see how our new normal compares.
Recent temperatures and rainfall observations suggest that average, or normal is becoming an awkward concept as the climate shifts. Temperature extremes such as the warmest season, or warmest month on record, as well as station or date records falling. Rainfall extremes resulting in widespread impactful flooding, with wettest months on record. This can be followed by dry, warm months and concerns about water scarcity.
The report highlights how the UK’s climate has warmed steadily from the 1980s onwards, at a rate of 0.25C per decade. There are sometimes cooler years but this is an overall trend. What stands out is the increasing frequency and intensity of daily temperature extremes.
The CET (Central England Temperature) series shows that “recent warming has far exceeded any observed temperatures in the last 300 years”.
There are two aspects to these extremes: how often they occur and their power. Scientists have been analysing the shifting frequency and intensity of both heat and rainfall extremes. These are what cause devastating flooding and heatwaves, which impact on people’s health and our infrastructure. It is not just the effects on people but also on nature that have been observed in phenology studies.
Met Office Climate Scientist and Lead Author of the report, Mike Kendon said,
“ This pace of change and clustering of consecutive records is not a natural variation in our climate. Numerous studies have shown how human emissions of greenhouse gases are warming the atmosphere and changing the weather we experience on the ground. Our climate in the UK is now different to what it was just a few decades ago, this is clear from our observations. “
The report also includes data about the decline of air and ground frosts, the warming of near-coast SSTs (Sea Surface Temperatures), sea-level rise is accelerating, the decline of snow events since the 1960s in number and severity, all from ground truth, the network of observations around the UK.
What stands out is how the days with extreme weather have increased, due to high temperatures or high rainfall in the winter half year, particularly in storm events. There are fluctuations, from months of too much rainfall leading to flooding and then dry seasons causing other issues. Parts of northern England and the southeast currently have water Temporary Usage Bans and much of NE/E Scotland has moderate water scarcity. There have been months of dry weather in the northern half of the UK for autumn 24 (and winter 2025/spring 2025). Climate looks at longer-term trends.
The climate of the United Kingdom differs to that of a generation ago. This report presents large datasets so that others can interpret and analyse but also is the evidence for organisations, government and communities to adapt for their warm futures. How will our environment and agriculture fare? Will it affect food security? What about our water and energy supply, the transport networks and IT/communications infrastructure? Town planning for the heightened flood risk. Energy efficiency for the cold of winter but the increasing heat of UK summers. Public health in times of heatwave and emergency response to wildfires. How businesses and institutions will adapt and manage their own climate risk, whilst governments consider how to finance wider needed adaptation, especially for those in poverty.
Professor Liz Bentley, Chief Executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, said: “This latest edition of the State of the UK Climate report reinforces the clear and urgent signals of our changing climate, rooted in robust observational science… to inform policy, resilience planning, and adaptation. Perhaps most striking is the growing impact of extremes…This report is not just a record of change, but a call to action.”
State of the UK Climate in 2024: International Journal of Climatology
Loading recent activity...
