'Unprecedented' climate change facing UK - with extreme temperatures here to stay

The UK is experiencing a period of "historic and unprecedented change" to its climate, and extreme conditions that have caused recent heatwaves are here to stay, says a new report.

There have been three heatwaves already this summer, and temperatures have exceeded 30C on 25 days in 2026.

In its annual "state of the UK climate" report published today, the Met Office says it's increasingly clear that Britain's climate has fundamentally changed – and is still "on the move".

Warmer conditions are being imported into the south, and colder climates in the north are shrinking, with man-made climate change – mostly caused by burning fossil fuels – driving more extreme weather.

It made 2025 the warmest year on record, dating back to 1884. It joins 2024, 2023 and 2022 on the list of the top five warmest years ever.

It was also the sixth time the record has been broken since the 21st century began.

Mike Kendon from the Met Office, lead author of the report, said: "We are right now living in a time of historic and unprecedented change, and in terms of temperature, on annual, seasonal, monthly and daily timescales, this evidence shows the climate of the 20th century has now gone."

Read more: 'Firewave' hits UK

In parts of the South East, the hottest day of the year is 4.5C warmer on average than it was just a few decades ago.

And the number of days over 30C has quadrupled in areas such as Greater London.

Further north, Mr Kendon said areas like the Vale of York and Lancashire are "having similar annual temperatures to those experienced by Greater London in 1961 to 1990".

But while temperatures are up, rainfall is down. England and Wales received less than half the average amount in the spring, and some places had less than a third.

It's a trend rearing its head once again in 2026, with hosepipe bans announced in the east of England, Cambridge, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, and parts of Kent.

The report for 2025 was led by the Met Office, with contributions from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, National Oceanography Centre and the Woodland Trust's Nature's Calendar.

It was published in the Royal Meteorological Society's (RMS) International Journal of Climatology.

RMS chief executive Professor Liz Bentley said the report provided a "ground truth" that climate change was impacting the UK, and warned it is "no longer an abstract concept for future generations".

(c) Sky News 2026: 'Unprecedented' climate change facing UK - with extreme temperatures here to stay