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Summer 2025 was the UK’s warmest on record, scientists at the Met Office have confirmed.

The UK’s mean temperature from 1 June to 31 August stands at 16.10C, which is 1.51C above the long-term meteorological average.

This passes the previous record of 15.76C, set in 2018, and pushes the summer of 1976 out of the top five warmest summers in a series dating back to 1884.

The analysis by Met Office climate scientists showed that a summer as hot or hotter than 2025 is now 70 times more likely than it would be in a “natural” climate with no human caused greenhouse gas emissions.

Met Office scientist Dr Emily Carlisle said: “Provisional Met Office statistics show that summer 2025 is officially the warmest on record with a mean temperature of 16.10°C, surpassing the previous record of 15.76°C set in 2018.

“The persistent warmth this year has been driven by a combination of factors including the domination of high-pressure systems, unusually warm seas around the UK and the dry spring soils. These conditions have created an environment where heat builds quickly and lingers, with both maximum and minimum temperatures considerably above average.”

The year 1976, which had a mean temperature of 15.70C, has now dropped out of the top five warmest summers since records began in 1884, leaving all five warmest summers having occurred since 2000.

The five warmest UK summers on record are now: 2025 at 16.10C , 2018 at 15.76C , 2006 at 15.75C, 2003 at 15.74C and 2022 at 15.71C .

June and July were both consistently above-average temperatures. England recorded its warmest June on record, while Wales and the UK overall saw their third and second warmest Junes respectively.

July continued the trend, making it the UK’s fifth warmest July on record.

Summer 2025 has seen four heatwaves, each relatively short-lived and interspersed with near-average conditions. The highest temperature recorded was 35.8°C in Faversham, Kent.

This is just below the peak temperature of 35.9C recorded in 1976 and also below the UK’s all-time high of 40.3C, set in July 2022.

Dr Mark McCarthy, head of climate attribution at the Met Office, said: “Our analysis shows that the summer of 2025 has been made much more likely because of the greenhouse gases humans have released since the industrial revolution. In a natural climate, we could expect to see a summer like 2025 with an approximate return period of around 340 years, while in the current climate we could expect to see these sorts of summers roughly one in every five years.

“Another interesting finding from our analysis is the context of this summer against other record-breaking summers, like that of 1976. Our analysis suggests that while 2025 has set a new record, we could plausibly experience much hotter summers in our current and near-future climate and shows how what would have been seen as extremes in the past are becoming more common in our changing climate.”

Tom Lancaster, analyst of land, food and farming at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), warned this record is not a one off. He added: “It follows the hottest ever UK day in 2022 and the wettest winter on record in 2023. This isn’t just weather, it is the impact of climate change in real time, and these impacts will only get worse if we don’t do more to reduce emissions of planet warming greenhouse gases to net zero. As much as we can do more to help industries like farming to adapt, the only real insurance against these climate impacts is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to net zero. This should now be viewed as a priority for our long-term food security.”