WIREDGOV

The UK’s climate has undergone a noticeable transformation over the past six decades, particularly in the frequency of extreme heat events.

Using Met Office station data from 1960 up to the current day, a clear upward trend is visible in the number of weather stations recording temperatures of 30°C or higher during the month of June, a threshold once considered rare in the British Isles.

In the 1960s and 1970s, such high temperatures were infrequent and typically short-lived. For example, in 1961 and 1968, only a single day in June saw any station reach the 30°C mark. However, the summer of 1976 marked a dramatic shift. That June, the UK experienced an extraordinary heatwave, with multiple stations recording 30°C+ temperatures over nine consecutive days. This event remains one of the most intense early-summer heatwaves in UK history and the 1976 Summer as a whole is still the UK’s warmest summer on record for average maximum temperatures based on a series from 1884.

Following a quieter period in the 1980s and early 1990s, the frequency of these hot days began to rise again in the 2000s. The June 2005 heatwave saw over 80 stations report temperatures above 30°C on a single day. More recently, June 2017 and June 2020 featured multiple days of widespread extreme heat, with dozens of stations across England and parts of Wales and Scotland hitting the 30°C threshold.

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June 2024, while cooler overall, still saw a brief but intense hot spell. Between the 24th and 26th, several stations in southeast England, including Heathrow and Wisley, recorded temperatures of 30°C or higher, peaking at 30.5°C

This illustrates a growing pattern: even in cooler years, short-lived but intense heat events are becoming more common.

Regionally, England consistently leads in the number of 30°C+ recordings, particularly in the southeast. However, recent years have seen occasional spikes in Wales and even Scotland, suggesting a broader geographic spread of extreme heat.

The Met Office’s long-term climate records and rolling averages confirm this warming trend. The Met Office 2023 State of the UK Climate report provided new analysis on this change, highlighting how temperature extremes and records are most affected by the UK’s changing climate. The number of hot days and the number of stations affected have both increased, aligning with broader global climate change patterns.

Large annual variability is a key characteristic of our climate in the UK, and despite the clear warming trend, there are still a number of monthly temperature records set for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in the early 20th Century or late 19th Century. However, these are increasingly being surpassed as time progresses and our climate continues to warm.

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