The UK daily temperature data contain maximum and minimum temperatures (air, grass and concrete slab) measured over a period of up to 24 hours. The measurements were recorded by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within NCM, DLY3208 or AWSDLY messages. The data span from 1853 to 2023. For details on measurement techniques, including calibration information and changes in measurements, see section 5.2 of the MIDAS User Guide linked to from this record. Soil temperature data may be found in the UK soil temperature datasets linked from this record.

This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. These include the addition of data for calendar year 2023.

This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by the Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record. Currently this represents approximately 95% of available daily temperature observations within the full MIDAS collection.

Monthly Historical information for 37 UK Meteorological Stations. Most go back to the early 1900s, but some go back as far as 1853.

Data includes:

• Mean maximum temperature (tmax)
• Mean minimum temperature (tmin)
• Days of air frost (af)
• Total rainfall (rain)
• Total sunshine duration (sun)

Station data files are updated on a rolling monthly basis, around 10 days after the end of the month. Data are indicated as provisional until the full network quality control has been carried out. After this, data are final.

No allowances have been made for small site changes and developments in instrumentation.

Data and statistics for other stations, and associated charges, can be obtained by contacting our Customer Centre.

The UK hourly weather observation data contain meteorological values measured on an hourly time scale. The measurements of the concrete state, wind speed and direction, cloud type and amount, visibility, and temperature were recorded by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within SYNOP, DLY3208, AWSHRLY and NCM messages. The sunshine duration measurements were transmitted in the HSUN3445 message. The data spans from 1875 to 2022.

This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. These include the addition of data for calendar year 2022.

For details on observing practice see the message type information in the MIDAS User Guide linked from this record and relevant sections for parameter types.

This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record. Note, METAR message types are not included in the Open version of this dataset. Those data may be accessed via the full MIDAS hourly weather data.

The UK hourly weather observation data contain meteorological values measured on an hourly time scale. The measurements of the concrete state, wind speed and direction, cloud type and amount, visibility, and temperature were recorded by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within SYNOP, DLY3208, AWSHRLY and NCM messages. The sunshine duration measurements were transmitted in the HSUN3445 message. The data spans from 1875 to 2019. This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. Of particular note, however, is that as well as including data for 2019, historical data recovery has added temperature and weather data for Bude (1937-1958), Teignmouth (1912-1930), and Eskdalemuir (1915-1948). For details on observing practice see the message type information in the MIDAS User Guide linked from this record and relevant sections for parameter types. This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record. Note, METAR message types are not included in the Open version of this dataset. Those data may be accessed via the full MIDAS hourly weather data.

The UK hourly weather observation data contain meteorological values measured on an hourly time scale. The measurements of the concrete state, wind speed and direction, cloud type and amount, visibility, and temperature were recorded by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within SYNOP, DLY3208, AWSHRLY and NCM messages. The sunshine duration measurements were transmitted in the HSUN3445 message. The data spans from 1875 to 2024. This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. These include the addition of data for calendar year 2024. For details on observing practice see the message type information in the MIDAS User Guide linked from this record and relevant sections for parameter types. This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record. Note, METAR message types are not included in the Open version of this dataset. Those data may be accessed via the full MIDAS hourly weather data.

The highest average temperature recorded in 2024 until November was in August, at 16.8 degrees Celsius. Since 2015, the highest average daily temperature in the UK was registered in July 2018, at 18.7 degrees Celsius. The summer of 2018 was the joint hottest since institutions began recording temperatures in 1910. One noticeable anomaly during this period was in December 2015, when the average daily temperature reached 9.5 degrees Celsius. This month also experienced the highest monthly rainfall in the UK since before 2014, with England, Wales, and Scotland suffering widespread flooding. Daily hours of sunshine Unsurprisingly, the heat wave that spread across the British Isles in 2018 was the result of particularly sunny weather. July 2018 saw an average of 8.7 daily sun hours in the United Kingdom. This was more hours of sun than was recorded in July 2024, which only saw 5.8 hours of sun. Temperatures are on the rise Since the 1960s, there has been an increase in regional temperatures across the UK. Between 1961 and 1990, temperatures in England averaged nine degrees Celsius, and from 2013 to 2022, average temperatures in the country had increased to 10.3 degrees Celsius. Due to its relatively southern location, England continues to rank as the warmest country in the UK.

Context

Simple time series data for weather prediction time series projects.

Content

The data contains the following information from the UK Met Office location at London Heathrow Airport. The data runs from Jan 1948 to Oct 2020 and includes the following monthly data fields:

• yyyy = Year
• mm = Month
• tmax = Maximum temperature (Celsius)
• tmin = Minimum temperature (Celsius)
• af = Count of Air Frost days in the given month
• rain = Total rainfall (mm)
• sun = Sunshine duration (hrs)

Acknowledgements

Provided by the UK Met Office: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/historic-station-data Available under Open Government Licence: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Example code

The following Python code will load into a Pandas DataFrame:

colspecs = [(3, 7), (9,11),(14,18),(22,26),(32,34),(37,42),(45,50)] data = pd.read_fwf('../input/heathrow-weather-data/heathrowdata.txt',colspecs=colspecs)

The following will remove the first few lines of text

data = data[3:].reset_index(drop=True) data.columns = data.iloc[1] data = data[3:].reset_index(drop=True)

The UK hourly weather observation data contain meteorological values measured on an hourly time scale. The measurements of the concrete state, wind speed and direction, cloud type and amount, visibility, and temperature were recorded by observation stations across the UK and transmitted within SYNOP, METAR, DLY3208, AWSHRLY and NCM messages. The sunshine duration measurements were transmitted in the HSUN3445 message. The data spans from 1875 to present. This dataset also contains data from a selection of overseas sites: SRC_ID STATION STATUS LAST DATA 1580 GUTERSLOH CLOSED 28/10/2013 13:00 1582 BRUGGEN CLOSED 29/09/2001 05:00 1584 LAARBRUCH CLOSED 14/05/1999 23:00 1585 GIBRALTAR, NORTH FRONT OPEN 03/02/2020 09:00 1588 AKROTIRI, CYPRUS OPEN 03/02/2020 09:00 1603 ASCENSION ISLAND AIRFIELD OPEN 02/02/2020 21:00 1605 BOTTOMS WOOD, ST HELENA OPEN 03/02/2020 09:00 1608 PORT STANLEY, FALKLAND IS CLOSED 31/12/1980 23:00 1609 MOUNT PLEASANT, FALKLAND IS OPEN 03/02/2020 09:00 56810 MOUNT OLYMPUS OPEN 16/04/2019 09:00 61737 MOUNT KENT, FALKLAND ISLANDS OPEN 03/02/2020 09:00 61743 MOUNT BYRON, FALKLAND ISLANDS OPEN 03/02/2020 09:00 61744 MOUNT ALICE, FALKLAND ISLANDS OPEN 02/02/2020 05:00

The annual mean temperature in the United Kingdom has fluctuated greatly since 1990. Temperatures during this period were at their highest in 2022, surpassing ** degrees Celsius. In 2010, the mean annual temperature stood at **** degrees, the lowest recorded during this time. Daily temperatures Average daily temperatures have remained stable since the turn of the century, rarely dropping below ** degrees Celsius. In 2010, they dropped to a low of **** degrees Celsius. The peak average daily temperature was recorded in 2022 when it reached **** degrees. This was an increase of *** degree Celsius compared to the long-term mean, and the most positive deviation during the period of consideration. Highs and lows The maximum average temperature recorded across the UK since 2015 was in July 2018. This month saw a maximum temperature of **** degrees Celsius. In comparison, the lowest monthly minimum temperature was in February of the same year, at just minus *** degrees. This was an especially cold February, as the previous year the minimum temperature for this month was *** degrees.

Licence information and source

The MET Office copyright policy can be found at: [https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/legal#licences] Data source from: [https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/historic-station-data]

Cover image: [https://pixabay.com/photos/scarborough-sunrise-seascape-2850597/]

TEMPEST (Tracking Extremes of Meteorological Phenomena Experienced in Space and Time) is the major output of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project “Spaces of Experience and Horizons of Expectation: Extreme Weather in the UK, Past, Present and Future (which ran from 2013-2017)".

TEMPEST was designed as a freely accessible and user-friendly database resource on the UK’s weather and climate history. TEMPEST is comprised of narrative accounts of extreme weather events of all types, extracted from documentary materials located in a range of archival repositories in the UK (consequentially, please see the quality statement note below concerning data issues). The information has been extracted from a wide range of documents, including letters, diaries, church records, school log-books and many others. The entries span more than 400 years - some as early as 1346 - of weather history and relate to places across the UK, though the data search was focused in five case-study regions: Central England, Southwest England, East Anglia, Wales, and Northwest Scotland.

Each event entry or narrative has been assigned to at least one weather type, is dated (at least to a year), and is geographically referenced (using digital coordinates). Many also contain material relating to the impacts of the weather event and responses to it. In addition to information on extreme weather events, TEMPEST contains details of the original documents, their authors, and the collections and repositories in which they are held. TEMPEST is searchable by all of these fields.

Users are advised to read the quality statement carefully with regards to possible issues in date and location accuracy and the way "extreme" events were documented. Additionally, users should be aware that the period covered by the dataset includes the change from the Julian to Gregorian calendar. In order to manage that change 11 days were omitted from the year 1752, i.e. the day after the 2 September 1752 was 14 September, in accordance with the Calendar Act of 1751. Until September 1752 the New Year began on 25 March (Lady Day) but dual dating was commonplace for many years before, adding a further layer of complication to events that took place from 1 January to 24 March, and making 1751 a short year running from 25 March to 31 December! Scotland had changed the start of the year to 1 January in 1600. Where clear, the Gregorian calendar date has been used, providing further details in the notes section.

Datamarket closure

As Microsoft have announced that they are shutting down their DataMarket service, the API access currently at https://datamarket.azure.com/dataset/datagovuk/metofficeweatheropendata will no longer be available after March 31st 2017.

The interface gives access to three datasets, hourly observations for approximately 150 UK observing stations, daily site specific and 3 hourly site specific forecasts for approximately 5000 UK locations.

Both the 3 hourly and daily forecast datasets provide forecasts out to 5 days with updates issued hourly.

Daily forecasts provide data for day and night using the following data time intervals.

· Weather symbols: Day – Sunrise to sunset, Night Sunset to Sunrise

· Temperature: Max – Maximum during 0600-18:00, Minimum during 18:00-06:00

· All other parameters are calculated for midday or midnight.

Hourly observation reports as recorded in real time by the Met Office UK Monitoring System. It should be noted that sites will only report parameters based on the instrumentation installed at each site and we only make available those parameters published on the Met Office website. Observations are subject to final quality control by the Met Office after publication by data.gov.uk, any changes made will not be retrospectively applied to this dataset.

The Chancellor's Autumn Statement 2011 announced that this release is open (OGL) and unrestricted (bulk download API): https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/61959/Further_detail_on_Open_Data_measures_in_the_Autumn_Statement_2011.pdf which is different to the access provided by the Met Office directly.

Temperature in the United Kingdom decreased to 9.88 celsius in 2024 from 10.14 celsius in 2023. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for the United Kingdom Average Temperature.

England's highest monthly mean air temperatures are typically recorded in July and August of each year. Since 2015, the warmest mean temperature was measured in July 2018 at 18.8 degrees Celsius. On the other hand, February of that same year registered the coolest temperature, at 2.6 degrees Celsius. In April 2025, the mean air temperature was 10.3 degrees Celsius, slightly higher than the same month the previous year. The English weather England is the warmest region in the United Kingdom and the driest. In 2024, the average annual temperature in England amounted to 10.73 degrees Celsius – around 1.1 degrees above the national mean. That same year, precipitation in England stood at about 1,020 millimeters. By contrast, Scotland – the wettest region in the UK – recorded over 1,500 millimeters of rainfall in 2024. Temperatures on the rise Throughout the last decades, the average temperature in the United Kingdom has seen an upward trend, reaching a record high in 2022. Global temperatures have experienced a similar pattern over the same period. This gradual increase in the Earth's average temperature is primarily due to various human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation, which lead to the emission of greenhouse gases. This phenomenon has severe consequences, including more frequent and intense weather events, rising sea levels, and adverse effects on human health and the environment.

Seasonal average water temperatures for some UK rivers, 1984 to 2007- data are derived from other CEH projects and collated here. The rivers are Afon Gwy, Allt a Mharcaidh, Allt na Coire nan Con, Bere Stream, Bovington Stream, Dargall Lane, Devils Book, Frome, Great Ouse, Hafren, Hooke, Hore, Lambourn, Nant y Gronwen, Narrator Brook, Old Lodge, Pang, Piddle, River Etherow, Sydling Water and Tadnoll.

The UK hourly rainfall data contain the rainfall amount (and duration from tilting syphon gauges) during the hour (or hours) ending at the specified time. The data also contains precipitation amounts, however precipitation measured over 24 hours are not stored. Over time a range of rain gauges have been used - see the linked MIDAS User Guide for further details. This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. The data were collected by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within the following message types: NCM, AWSHRLY, DLY3208, SREW and SSER. The data spans from 1915 to 2023. This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by the Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record. A large proportion of the UK raingauge observing network (associated with WAHRAIN, WADRAIN and WAMRAIN for hourly, daily and monthly rainfall measurements respectively) is operated by other agencies beyond the Met Office, and are consequently currently excluded from the Midas-open dataset.

Daily weather data measured in Caldicot, Wales from January 2017 to March 2020. The weather data was collected using a WS-GP1 weather station supplied by Delta-T Devices Ltd, Cambridge, UK. The data were collected to provide potential evaporative drying and rainfall for (i) a wall capillary uptake model and (ii) a soil water balance model. The measurements include daily maximum temperature (°C), minimum temperature (°C), maximum relative humidity (%), minimum relative humidity (%), wind speed (m/s), rainfall (mm) and radiation (kw/m2).

The wettest months in the United Kingdom tend to be at the start and end of the year. In the period of consideration, the greatest measurement of rainfall was nearly 217 millimeters, recorded in December 2015. The lowest level of rainfall was recorded in April 2021, at 20.6 millimeters. Rainy days The British Isles are known for their wet weather, and in 2024 there were approximately 164 rain days in the United Kingdom. A rainday is when more than one millimeter of rain falls within a day. Over the past 30 years, the greatest number of rain days was recorded in the year 2000. In that year, the average annual rainfall in the UK amounted to 1,242.1 millimeters. Climate change According to the Met Office, climate change in the United Kingdom has resulted in the weather getting warmer and wetter. In 2022, the annual average temperature in the country reached a new record high, surpassing 10 degrees Celsius for the first time. This represented an increase of nearly two degrees Celsius when compared to the annual average temperature recorded in 1910. In a recent survey conducted amongst UK residents, almost 80 percent of respondents had concerns about climate change.

Context Simple time series data for weather prediction time series projects.

Content The data contains the following information from the UK Met Office location at Armagh, Northern Ireland. The data runs from Jan 1853 to Nov 2020 and includes the following monthly data fields:

yyyy = Year mm = Month tmax = Maximum temperature (Celsius) tmin = Minimum temperature (Celsius) af = Count of Air Frost days in the given month rain = Total rainfall (mm) sun = Sunshine duration (hrs) Acknowledgements Provided by the UK Met Office: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/historic-station-data Available under Open Government Licence: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Example code The following Python code will load into a Pandas DataFrame:

colspecs = [(3, 7), (9,11),(14,18),(22,26),(32,34),(37,42),(45,50)] data = pd.read_fwf('../input/heathrow-weather-data/heathrowdata.txt',colspecs=colspecs)

The following will remove the first few lines of text

data = data[3:].reset_index(drop=True) data.columns = data.iloc[1] data = data[3:].reset_index(drop=True)