UK Records Warmest and Sunniest Year as Met Office Confirms 2025 Climate Milestones

Britain’s famously changeable weather reached a new milestone last year, as 2025 was confirmed as both the warmest and sunniest year on record for the United Kingdom.

Records for heat and sunshine

The Met Office said Friday that the UK’s average temperature for 2025 was 10.09°C (50.2°F), the highest in a national series dating back to 1884. The country also logged 1,648.5 hours of sunshine, the most since sunshine records began in 1910.

“It is clear that 2025 was the warmest year on record for the UK, surpassing the previous record set in 2022,” said Mark McCarthy, head of climate attribution at the Met Office. “This very warm year is in line with expected consequences of human‑induced climate change.”

The confirmation, released Jan. 2, caps a year of extremes: a winter that barely felt like one, a spring that was both record‑breaking for sunshine and the driest in more than a century, the hottest summer on record, and an autumn that turned abruptly to flooding in parts of the country. Scientists say it offers a preview of the UK’s emerging climate as the planet warms.

How unusual 2025 was

The Met Office’s analysis shows how exceptional 2025 was in historical context. The 10.09°C annual mean temperature edges past the previous national record of 10.03°C set in 2022. Four of the last five years — 2022 through 2025 — now rank among the UK’s five warmest on record. All of the country’s 10 warmest years have occurred since 2000.

In a longer‑term benchmark, 2025 was also the warmest year in the Central England Temperature series, which runs back to 1659 and is one of the world’s longest continuous climate records.

The sunshine record was equally stark. The 1,648.5 hours of sunshine in 2025 beat the previous annual high of 1,587.1 hours set in 2003 by more than 60 hours. England recorded its sunniest year on record; Wales and Scotland each had their second sunniest, while Northern Ireland had its eighth.

Despite the heat, 2025 did not break the UK’s all‑time daily temperature record of 40.3°C, set in 2022 at Coningsby in Lincolnshire. The highest temperature last year was 35.8°C, recorded on July 1 at Faversham in Kent. What set 2025 apart, scientists said, was not a single heat spike, but persistent warmth across much of the year.

“What has been noteworthy this year has been the consistent heat throughout the year, with every month except January and September warmer than average,” said Met Office scientist Emily Carlisle. From March to August, each month was at least 1°C above the 1991‑2020 average.

Seasons of extremes

Seasonal figures underline that consistency. Spring 2025 was the warmest spring on record for the UK and for all four home nations. It was also the sunniest UK spring on record, with 653.3 hours of sunshine — 43% above the seasonal average — and the driest spring nationally for more than 100 years. In England, it was provisionally the second driest spring since 1836.

Summer followed the same pattern. The UK’s mean summer temperature reached 16.10°C, 1.51°C above the 1991‑2020 norm and the highest in records dating back to 1884. Four heatwaves between mid‑June and mid‑August pushed temperatures above 30°C across large parts of the country.

Climate change attribution

Met Office attribution studies suggest such extremes are far more likely in a warming world. A rapid analysis carried out for the 2025 annual figures estimated that human‑caused climate change made the UK’s record annual mean temperature about 260 times more likely than it would have been in a pre‑industrial climate. Under today’s conditions, the agency said, a year as warm as 2025 can be expected roughly once every three years.

A separate assessment found that a summer as hot or hotter than 2025 is now around 70 times more likely than in a climate without human‑driven greenhouse gas emissions.

“These kinds of temperatures are increasingly breaking new ground,” McCarthy said. “Our observations and climate models both show that human‑induced global warming is now clearly affecting the UK’s climate.”

What drove the conditions

Weather patterns and ocean conditions helped to amplify the long‑term warming trend. Persistent high‑pressure systems over and near the UK during spring and summer suppressed cloud cover and rainfall, allowing heat to build and sunshine totals to rise. Exceptionally dry soils after the record‑dry spring further intensified summer heat by limiting evaporation.

Around the British Isles, sea surface temperatures were well above average, with marine heatwave conditions reported through much of the year. That reduced the cooling effect normally provided by surrounding seas.

Drought in some regions, flooding in others

While 2025 ended up slightly drier than average overall, with UK rainfall at around 90% of normal, the headline number masked sharp regional and seasonal contrasts.

Southern and central England endured prolonged dryness between March and August, with some areas receiving less than half their usual rainfall. The shortages prompted several major water companies — including Thames Water, Southern Water, South East Water and Yorkshire Water — to introduce hosepipe bans and other restrictions affecting close to 10 million people.

“Dry weather caused real pressure on our public water supplies, with many reservoirs reaching worryingly low levels,” said Helen Wakeham, director of water at the Environment Agency. She said the year highlighted the need to improve resilience to both drought and flood.

Elsewhere, the picture was different. Cornwall finished the year slightly wetter than average. In northeast Scotland, Banffshire recorded its driest year on record, with about 69% of normal rainfall.

Wales exemplified what climate officials there called a year of “stark extremes.” After a dry, hot summer that saw rivers run low and wildfires break out on upland slopes, autumn and early winter turned abruptly wet. Wales recorded about 37% more rainfall than average in autumn, and rivers such as the Ebbw reached record‑high flows in December.

“2025 has been a year of stark extremes for Wales,” said Jeremy Parr, head of flood and incident risk management at Natural Resources Wales. “These contrasts are not isolated events — they are clear signs of a changing climate.”

Impacts on land, nature and energy

The heat and drought also left a mark on the countryside. The National Trust, which manages large areas of farmland, coastline and moorland, reported that more than 5,300 hectares of its land burned in 2025, the highest figure it has recorded. Fires on upland peatlands damaged carbon‑rich soils and habitats for rare species.

Scientists observed changes in the timing of the seasons as well. Botanists taking part in an annual New Year’s survey counted hundreds of plant species in flower across the UK in mid‑winter, far above historical expectations. Researchers have described the widespread winter blooming as a visible sign of a warming climate, with potential knock‑on effects for insects and birds.

The record sunshine brought some benefits, notably for renewable energy. Analysts said output from solar farms and rooftop panels was boosted, with solar power supplying more than 6% of UK electricity over the year — higher than in many previous years. Grid operators also faced challenges balancing supply during prolonged sunny spells when solar generation surged.

Public‑health data for 2025 are still being compiled, but officials expect summer heatwaves and warm nights to have increased heat‑related illness and deaths, particularly among older people and those living in poorly insulated housing. Similar conditions in 2022 were linked to thousands of excess deaths in England and Wales.

A sign of a shifting climate

Taken together, the figures suggest 2025 was less an outlier than part of a continuing shift. With all of the UK’s warmest years clustered since the turn of the century, and with a year like 2025 now expected to recur every few years, the Met Office’s double record points to a climate in which hotter, brighter and more volatile conditions are increasingly the norm.