It’s Getting Hotter And Wetter In The UK, Met Office Reveals

The UK’s climate is changing rapidly. According to the Met Office, recent decades have been much warmer, wetter and sunnier than the 20th century, with a significant increase in the frequency of temperature extremes.

The Met Office’s annual “State of the UK Climate” report, published in the Royal Meteorological Society’s ‘International Journal of Climatology’, is a comprehensive review of the UK climate and significant weather events throughout the year. This report is based on observations from the UK’s network of weather stations, using data back to the 19th Century to provide long term context.

2023 – The Second Warmest Year

This year’s report summarises the weather in 2023 and compares it to the previous decades. 

According to the observations, 2023 was the second warmest year for the UK from 1884, with only 2022 warmer. There was regional variability, for example, for Wales and Northern Ireland it was the warmest year on record.

February, May, June and September of 2023 are in the top-ten warmest months for the UK in the monthly series from 1884.

The most recent decade – 2014-2023 – has been on average 0.42°C warmer than the 1991–2020 average and 1.25°C warmer than 1961–1990. This is considered to be the warmest 10-year period from 1884.

The Met Office distinguishes “pleasant” days with daily maximum 20°C, “warm” days – 25°C, “hot” days – 28°C and “very hot” days – 30°C. 

The paper states:

• The number of “pleasant” days has increased by 41% for the most recent decade (2014–2023) compared with 1961–1990
• The number of “warm” days has increased by 63%
• The number of “hot” days has more than doubled
• “Very hot” days more than tripled over the same period.

Meaning that around 50 years ago 28-30°C days were 4-6 times a year and now – 12-20 times.

Beware Of The Sun – Don’t Forget The Sunscreen

The observations indicate that the UK is getting more sunshine than ever. 2014–2023 is the sunniest 10-year period in the UK from 1910.

In 2023 June was the sunniest month of the year and the UK’s sunniest calendar month since May 2020 with 245 hours. December was the most dull with only 28 hours of sunshine.

The most recent decade has had for the UK on average 4% more hours of bright sunshine per year than the 1991–2020 average and 9% more than 1961–1990. 

Even winters have become sunnier – the last decade was 4% sunnier than 1991–2020 and 15% sunnier than 1961–1990.

Should We Expect More Rain?

Although rainfall has a much higher variability than temperature, it is still possible to identify an increasing frequency of the wettest days over time – scientists claim.

2023 was the seventh wettest year in the UK from 1836, with 113% of the 1991–2020 average. Some huge areas of the UK exceeded 125%.

March, July, October and December 2023 were all top-ten wettest months in the UK from 1836.

Over the last ten years it has become 2% wetter than during the period of 1991–2020 and 10% wetter than during 1961–1990.

Even in the UK’s winter there is 9% more rainfall compared with 1991–2020 and 24% more rainfall than in 1961–1990, with smaller increases in summer and autumn and none in spring.

Also, there has been a slight increase in heavy rainfall across the UK in recent decades.

Significant Weather Events In 2023

The year 2023 was full of extraordinary weather events. June was extremely warm, including a marine heatwave. 30°C was recorded in September in the UK on seven consecutive days, for the first time on record. That may seem strange, but the hottest day of the year was recorded in September – 33.5°C on 10 September.

Scotland had its wettest 2-day period on record on 6–7 October in a daily series from 1891 – 39% of the 1991-2020 October whole-month average.

However, no doubt that the most impactful event of the year was storm Babet on 16-21 October. The powerful storm with heavy rainfall brought unprecedented flooding to the North, the Midlands and Scotland, causing significant damage to farmland and infrastructure.

The second most impactful event was storm Ciarán in November with its severe winds that reached 154 km/h in some parts of the UK (The Needles at the Isle of Wight). The storm had the potential to be as severe as from the “Great Storm” of 16 October 1987, but, luckily, the strongest winds missed the UK to the south.

The climate is changing and we can witness it every year. More warmth and sun may sound nice, but scientists insist that such changes are harmful for our ecosystem. More frequent periods of hot weather and a significant increase in rainfall extremes bring challenges for farming, infrastructure and wellbeing in general. The number of heatwaves, storms, droughts all over the world will increase as a consequence of human-impacted global climate change.