LONDON: Last year was Britain’s hottest and sunniest on record, the national weather service confirmed on Friday, calling it a “clear demonstration” of the impacts of climate change.
The previous record of 10.03°C was set in 2022. “2025 now joins 2022 and 2023 in the top three warmest years since 1884,” the Met Office said in a statement, noting the United Kingdom’s mean temperature through last year was 10.09°C.
“This is an increasingly clear demonstration of the impacts of climate change on UK temperatures,” it added.
“It is also only the second year in this series where the UK’s annual mean temperature has exceeded 10.0°C.”
It means four of the UK’s last five years now appear in the top five warmest years since 1884, and all of the top 10 hottest years will now have occurred in the last two decades.
The Met Office had already announced last month that 2025 was the country’s sunniest year since that record series began in 1910.
The United Kingdom, which comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, saw 1648.5 hours of sunshine, 61.4 hours more than the previous record set in 2003.
An “exceptional” amount of sunshine during the spring followed by long spells of clear skies during the summer helped set the record, the Met Office has noted.
The country experienced persistent spells of dry and sunny weather in 2025, with every month except January and September warmer than average.
Spring and then a summer featuring four heatwaves were Britain’s warmest on record, while spring was the driest in more than a century.
Droughts were declared in several regions, reservoir sites fell below 50 per cent of their usual capacity and a handful of water companies issued bans on using hosepipes.
Fire brigades in England in 2025 also tackled the highest number of spring wildfires since comparable records began in 2011, according to figures obtained by the PA news agency from 35 of the 43 fire services in England.
At least 12,454 grassland, woodland or crop fires were recorded by fire services in the three months from March to May 2025.
The number was more than four times the 2,621 incidents logged in the same period in 2024.
Met Office scientist Emily Carlisle said: “Meteorologically, the warmth has been driven largely by persistent high-pressure systems bringing prolonged dry, sunny conditions, alongside above-average sea temperatures around the UK.
Last year Britain produced a record-high amount of electricity from renewable energy.
Wind, solar and biomass power combined to supply 47 per cent of the country’s electricity in 2025, climate and energy website Carbon Brief said in a study Friday.
The country has set a target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 81 per cent by 2035 compared to 1990 levels and is aiming to be carbon neutral by the middle of the century. – AFP
