Number of days above 30C trebles in a decade
The number of days above 30C has trebled in the UK as the climate gets warmer and wetter, despite this year’s indecisive summer, the Met Office has said.
In the decade from 2014 and 2023, the number of warm days (temperatures of 25C) increased by 63 per cent, while hot days (temperatures of 28C) more than doubled, compared with the 1961-1990 average, according to the latest State of the UK Climate report.
Last year was the UK’s second warmest, seventh wettest and 22nd sunniest year in records dating back to 1884, 1836 and 1910 respectively.
Storm Babet, one of several over the year, caused widespread disruption, flooding and several deaths when it hit in October.
Liz Bentley, chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, said that 2024 has been unusual because the UK has been on the northern edge of the jet stream, keeping temperatures relatively low this summer.
“But doesn’t mean to say that’s going to be the climate of the future going forward, it may just be an anomalous year,” she said.
She added that despite the cooler temperatures this summer, the UK had still had its warmest May on record, largely because of warm overnight temperatures.
“I don’t look at those European temperatures with envy, I am actually grateful that we haven’t seen temperatures of the mid-30s, high low 40s,” she said.
Heatwaves and flooding are having a “profound impact on communities, whether that’s putting a strain on the healthcare sector, damaging the infrastructure around us or disrupting our daily lives”.
Last year’s storm season was its most active start in terms of named storms since the practice began in 2015, with seven named storms, Agnes to Gerrit, from September to December.
“It’s very clear from the observations that our climate is changing,” said Mike Kendon. “Recent decades show that we’re getting warmer, we’re getting wetter, and we are getting sunnier compared to the last century.”
He added that 2023 “will be a fairly average year by the middle of the century and actually a fairly cool year by the end of the century”.
The UK is now looking at hitting two degrees of warming by 2100, compared with the 1991-2020 average, he added.
“So that’s really a dramatic indication that our climate is going to be pushed outside the envelope of the current and historical range.”
While new records have been set for the UK’s hottest month several times over the last decade, the last coldest month was in 2010, the Met Office noted.
The annual report is published in the Royal Meteorological Society’s International Journal of Climatology.