This summer is set to be the warmest on record for the UK, the Met Office has said, after the country experienced four heatwaves.
The mean temperature for summer is tracking at 16.13C (61.03F), which is significantly above the current record of 15.76C set in 2018.
Many remember 1976 as being a scorching summer with a record heatwave, but this data would relegate that year out of the top five warmest summers since records began in 1884. It would mean all five warmest summers on record had occurred since 2000.
The Met Office scientist Emily Carlisle said: “Provisional Met Office statistics show that summer 2025 will almost certainly be the warmest summer on record … Unless temperatures are around four degrees below average for the rest of August, which the forecast does not suggest, it looks like the current record will be exceeded.
“Of course, there are still a few days left of meteorological summer to go, but it’s very unlikely anything will stop summer 2025 from being the warmest on record.”
The Met Office will officially announce whether or not it has been the warmest ever summer on Monday 1 September, when the meteorological season, which began on 1 June, ends.
June and July had warm weather, with four heatwaves including days passing 30C. There has been very little rain across much of the country, with England experiencing what the government called “nationally significant” water shortfalls. Much of England is under a hosepipe ban as reservoirs, rivers and groundwater run dry.
Although the summer has been consistently warm, there has not been extreme heat. The highest temperature recorded to date for 2025 was 35.8C in Faversham, Kent, on 1 July, well short of the UK’s all-time high of 40.3C set in July 2022.
Meteorologists have said this year’s consistent warmth was driven by dry ground from spring, high-pressure systems, and unusually warm seas around the UK, and minimum temperatures had been exceptionally above average.
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The Met Office said climate breakdown was also to blame, with the UK warming at a rate of approximately 0.25C each decade.
This summer’s marine heatwave was also fuelled by climate breakdown, the Met Office said.