The United Kingdom's hottest summer ever recorded was in 2018, with an average temperature of 15.76 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, 2023 saw the eighth hottest summer in the UK, with an average temperature of 15.35 degrees. In the last couple of decades, five of the top 10 warmest summers in the UK were recorded. New temperature records in 2022 In summer 2022, record-breaking temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius were recorded at several locations across the UK. Accordingly, 2022 was also the UK's warmest year on record, with the average annual temperature rising above 10 degrees Celsius for the first time. Since temperature recording began in 1884, the hottest years documented in the country have all occurred after 2003. England: the warmest country in the UK Amongst the countries that comprise the United Kingdom, England has generally seen the highest annual mean temperatures. In 2022, England’s average temperature also reached a new record high, at nearly 11 degrees Celsius. And while it’s not a typical sight in the United Kingdom, England also registered the most hours of sunshine on average, with Scotland being the gloomiest country out of the four.

England's hottest summers ever recorded were in 2022 and 2018, both with an average temperature of **** degrees Celsius. During summer 2022, record-breaking temperatures exceeding ** degrees Celsius were reached at several locations in England, such as Heathrow and St James's Park in London.

This dataset is maintained by Max Eastwood (m.w.eastwood@lboro.ac.uk), Building Energy Research Group (BERG), School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University.

This dataset provides the measured indoor dry bulb temperatures and surrounding weather conducted in the Loughborough Matched Pair test houses during summer 2022. The dataset is made publicly available here. This dataset includes: 1. README.txt: A Read Me file with more details of the study and the dataset. 2. Dataset_descriptor.pdf: a guidance document containing information on the measurment work carried out. 3. West_AT_10minute.csv: 10-minute dry bulb temperature measured in the West house (AT = Air Temperature) 4. East_AT_10minute.csv: 10-minute dry bulb temperature measured in the East house 5. Weather_20second.csv: 20-second weather data compiled from the test house weather station. Other information on the houses' geometry and construction can be found here: https://doi.org/10.17028/rd.lboro.8094575

While 2023 ranked as England's second-hottest year in over a century, the highest mean temperature in the country was recorded one year earlier, at an average of 10.93 degrees Celsius. This was almost one degree warmer than the average UK temperature that year. England's hottest ever summer was also recorded in 2022, with temperatures averaging 17.1 degrees Celsius. Nine of England's 10 hottest years have all been recorded since 2006.

The United Kingdom recorded its hottest-ever year in 2022, with an average temperature of ***** degrees Celsius. Since the start of temperature recording in ****, the ** warmest years recorded in the UK have been from 2003 onwards. Weather conditions are predicted to become more extreme due to climate change.

In 2022, several locations across the United Kingdom exceeded temperatures of more than ** degrees Celsius for the time time on record. The village of Coningsby in eastern England reached **** degrees Celsius on July 19, 2022. That same day, temperatures at Heathrow and St James's Park in London, as well as Pitsford, Northamptonshire, also recorded a maximum temperature of over ** degrees Celsius. 2022 was the UK's hottest year on record.

'''DEFINITION''' The subsurface temperature anomaly has been derived from the regional reanalysis of the CMEMS NWS MFC group for the North-West European Shelf Seas (product reference NWSHELF_MULTIYEAR_PHY_004_009). Horizontal averaging has been conducted over just the shelf, defined as the contiguous region surrounding the UK where sea depth is no more than 200m. The profiles of the annual mean temperature anomaly have been calculated relative to the reference period of 1993-2019. The time series shows monthly anomalies calculated from monthly means. CMEMS Ocean State Report (Mulet et al., 2018) gives the broader context for these anomalies.

'''CONTEXT''' The North-West European Shelf Seas are the waters on the continental shelf adjoining the North-East Atlantic. Geographically, they can be divided into 5 regions: the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, the Irish Sea, and the North-Western Approaches. The temperatures in these seas is moderated by inflow from the North Atlantic Drift (a continuation of the Gulf Stream), into the Irish Sea and English Channel from the south-west and into the North Sea from the north and north-west. In Winter, this Atlantic water maintains surface temperatures no colder than 10°C in western regions. Cooler temperatures, below 3°C, can occur in eastern parts near continental coasts. In Summer, those eastern coastal regions can warm to as much as 18°C, especially in the shallow waters of the southern North Sea. Stratification occurs in the Summer months, starting around May in the northern part of the domain, and then extending southwards (Paramor et al., 2009). Currents are dominated by the strong semi-diurnal tides which act to mix the water and reduce stratification. This is especially noticeable in the shallow southern North Sea.

'''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' Interannual variations of the subsurface temperature anomaly averaged across the domain range from -1°C to +1°C within the upper 100-m deep layer over the period 1993-2019. There is some long-term variability, with warm anomalies for most of the first decade of the 21st century. This is a decade in which 6 of the 10 warmest years on record occurred for air temperature over the UK (Kendon et al., 2019). The 4 other warmest years for UK climate were 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2018. 2011 and 2017 correspond to warm anomalies through the depth of the Shelf. 2018 saw an unusually hot Summer heatwave for the atmosphere, which is reflected in a short-lived and shallow warm anomaly (to 25m depth) in the reanalysis. 2014 was for UK climate the hottest year on record. This corresponds to a stronger and longer-lived anomaly in the reanalysis, but only down to around 75m depth. Temperatures in deeper layers may be moderated by inflow to the region from the North Atlantic drift. 2019 was overall slightly warmer than average in near-surface layers, and slightly cooler below 100m depth.

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.

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.

During the heat wave in 2022, the highest temperature recorded in the United Kingdom was **** degrees Celsius on ******* at Coningsby, Lincolnshire. An unprecedented extreme heatwave was experienced in the United Kingdom from ** to ** *********, and extreme temperatures at over 40°C were recorded for the first time since recording of temperatures began.

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.

Since January 2015, the highest maximum monthly temperature in England was measured in July 2018, at 24.8 degrees Celsius. July temperatures declined in the following years, and measured 20.6 degrees Celsius in 2024. Further information about the weather in the United Kingdom can be found here.