UK had hottest summer since records began, Met Office says

The news comes as the opposition Conservative Party pledges to drill all remaining North Sea oil and gas, if elected.

The United Kingdom has experienced its warmest summer since records began in 1884, and is more likely to see similar hot weather in the future due to human-induced climate change, the Met Office weather forecaster said.

The country saw four heatwaves this summer, with the highest temperature of 35.8 degrees Celsius (96.4 degrees Fahrenheit) recorded in Faversham, southeast England, the Met Office said on Monday.

That peak was still lower than the UK’s all-time high of 40.3C (104.5F), recorded in the summer of 2022.

June, July and August saw a mean average temperature of 16.1C (60.9F), surpassing a 2018 record of 15.8C (60.4F), the Met Office said, putting the summer of 2025 temperature at 1.5C (34.7F) above the long-term meteorological average.

“Our analysis shows that the summer of 2025 has been made much more likely because of the greenhouse gases humans have released since the Industrial Revolution,” said the head of climate attribution at the Met Office, Mark McCarthy.

“We could plausibly experience much hotter summers in our current and near future,” McCarthy said.

“What would have been seen as extremes in the past are becoming more common in our changing climate.”

The announcement from the Met Office on Monday came as Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, said her party would extract every last drop of oil and gas from the North Sea if re-elected, according to The Financial Times.

Health experts and climate activists have warned that drilling for more oil and gas in the North Sea could have adverse consequences for climate change.

The UK’s infrastructure and health systems have struggled to keep up with the intensifying summer heat.

In June, soaring temperatures in London’s underground rail network saw Transport for London urge passengers to carry water and “look out for each other while travelling”, according to the BBC.

An alliance of 53 UK health organisations, representing some one million health professionals, has warned that “heatwaves are linked to sharp increases in deaths”, and that higher temperatures can disrupt sleep, increase stress, and make mental health illnesses, such as depression and anxiety, worse.

Countries worldwide have experienced record-breaking heat in recent years as global warming intensifies.

Japan and South Korea^[1] have just sweated through their hottest summers since records began.

In Europe, sweltering heatwaves this summer contributed to deadly wildfires in countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal.^[2][3]

Meanwhile, two million people^[4] have been affected as Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province is currently dealing with the biggest flood^[5] in its history.

In July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found^[6] that countries must meet their climate obligations and that failing to do so could violate international law, potentially opening the door for affected nations to seek reparations in future legal cases.

References

1. ^{^} Japan and South Korea (www.aljazeera.com)
2. ^{^} Greece (www.aljazeera.com)
3. ^{^} Spain and Portugal. (www.aljazeera.com)
4. ^{^} two million people (www.aljazeera.com)
5. ^{^} biggest flood (www.aljazeera.com)
6. ^{^} found (www.aljazeera.com)