Climate change is dramatically increasing the frequency of extreme high temperatures in the UK, new Met Office analysis has confirmed.
Its annual State of the Climate report says data from 2023 shows the country is experiencing significantly more really hot days.
Its observations suggest there has been an increase in the number of really wet days too, such as the prolonged and heavy rain Storm Babet brought to wide areas of the country in October last year.
The report finds the UK is also seeing a 40% increase in the number of what the Met Office describes as “pleasant” days – those with temperatures of 20C or more – and has become 9% sunnier over the last few decades.
Those changes may sound positive, but the UK’s shifting climate represents a dangerous upheaval for our ecosystems as well as our infrastructure.
For example, between 1961 and 1990 only London and Hampshire recorded six or more days a year with temperatures over 28C – which the Met Office defines as “hot days”. By the latest decade (2014-2023) virtually everywhere in England and Wales was seeing this many hot days, while the South East now gets over 12 in a year.
The increase in the number of “very hot days” of 30C or more has been even more dramatic, trebling over the last few decades.
Rainfall patterns vary much more than temperature, but the Met Office says it is still possible to identify an increase in the frequency of the wettest days. It looked at the top 5% of wettest days in the period 1961 to 1990 and found extremely wet days like these were occurring 20% more frequently in the most recent decade.
“Some of the statistics in
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