2025 has broken historical climate records, with provisional Met Office figures showing it has been both the warmest and sunniest year on record for the UK.
Recording a mean temperature of 10.09°C, 2025 now joins 2022 and 2023 in the top three warmest years since 1884. This is an increasingly clear demonstration of the impacts of climate change on UK temperatures.
It is also only the second year in this series where the UK’s annual mean temperature has exceeded 10.0°C.
As previously confirmed, 2025 also goes down as the sunniest year since the series began in 1910, recording 1648.5 hours of sunshine across the UK – 61.4 hours more than the previous record set in 2003.
Warmest year on record
Four of the UK’s last five years now appear in the top five warmest years since 1884 and all of the top ten warmest years will now have occurred in the last two decades.
Head of climate attribution at the Met Office, Dr Mark McCarthy, said: “2025 was the warmest year on record for the UK, surpassing the previous record set in 2022, in a series dating back to 1884.
“We’re increasingly seeing UK temperatures break new ground in our changing climate, as demonstrated by a new highest UK mean temperature record just three years after the last record.
“This very warm year is in line with expected consequences of human-induced climate change. Although it doesn’t mean every year will be the warmest on record, it is clear from our weather observations and climate models that human-induced global warming is impacting the UK’s climate.”
Since the start of the 21st Century, a new record has been set for UK annual mean temperature no less than six times – in 2002, 2003, 2006, 2014, 2022 and now 2025.
Spring and Summer 2025 were also the UK’s warmest on record, with Winter 24/25 and Autumn 2025 recording above-average temperatures.
Met Office Scientist Dr Emily Carlisle said: “While many will remember the long warm spring and summer of 2025, what has been noteworthy this year has been the consistent heat throughout the year, with every month except January and September warmer than average.
“In the six months from March to August, every month was at least 1°C above the 1991-2020 average. This resulted in the warmest spring and the warmest summer we have seen in this series.
“Meteorologically, the warmth has been driven largely by persistent high-pressure systems bringing prolonged dry, sunny conditions, alongside above-average sea temperatures around the UK. These factors have combined to keep temperatures consistently higher than normal for much of the year.”
UK’s sunniest year on record too
This year has already been the sunniest year on record for the UK, according to provisional Met Office statistics. The UK has recorded 1648.5 hours of sunshine across the year, surpassing the previous sunniest year set in 2003 by 61.4 hours, in a series which dates back to 1910.
