Summer 2025 may rewrite the heat records, Met Office cautions Britain

Provisional figures from the Met Office suggest that summer 2025 could end up being one of the warmest ever recorded in the UK.

From the start of June through 17 August, the average temperature across the country has been 16.2°C. That is 1.6°C higher than the long-term seasonal average, a clear sign of just how warm this summer has been.

Although there are still two weeks of summer left, the consistency of the heat makes it very likely that 2025 will be remembered as one of the UK’s warmest summers. Both daytime highs and nighttime lows have stayed well above the norm, with the overnight minimums in particular standing out.

Steady heat in June and July

June started on the cooler side thanks to Atlantic weather patterns, but warm spells soon followed. By the end of the month, the mean temperature across the UK had risen to 15.2°C, which is 1.9°C above average. England experienced its hottest June on record, while Wales and the UK as a whole logged their third and second warmest Junes, respectively.

July carried on in the same vein. The UK mean temperature reached 16.8°C, putting it 1.5°C above average and making it the fifth warmest July in the country’s history.

Heatwaves without extremes

So far, the UK has experienced four separate heatwaves this summer. While that number is unusual, each spell of extreme warmth was relatively short and broken up by stretches of more average weather. Interestingly, none of these heatwaves have produced record-breaking peaks. The highest temperature recorded this year was 35.8°C in Faversham, Kent, which is still far below the UK record of 40.3°C set in 2022.

A summer short on rain

Rainfall has been running below normal, with the UK as a whole receiving just 72 percent of the long-term summer average by mid-August.

Typically, by this point in the season, you expect around 85 percent. The picture, however, varies sharply across regions. Central, southern, and eastern England, along with Wales, have been notably dry, whereas northwestern areas, particularly Scotland, have experienced far more rainfall. Northern Scotland has already received 98 percent of its seasonal total, compared with only 58 percent in the Midlands.

This comes on the heels of England’s driest spring in more than a century and the driest January-to-July stretch since 1929.

Sunshine in abundance

Sunshine has also been running above average, though it is still too early to know whether this will translate into new records by the end of the season.

Why has it been so persistently warm?

Several factors lie behind this unusually warm summer. A dominant high-pressure system has been in place for much of the season, keeping skies clear and conditions settled. Dry soils following the spring drought reduced the natural cooling effect from evaporation, while an ongoing marine heatwave around the UK has further boosted air temperatures.

Climate change is also contributing to the warming trend, with the UK experiencing a rate of roughly 0.25°C per decade. That trend helps explain why three of the top ten warmest summers on record —2023, 2022, and 2018 —have all occurred within the past few years.