{"id":389992,"date":"2025-09-01T19:25:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T19:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/389992\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T19:25:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T19:25:17","slug":"wales-had-hottest-summer-on-record-figures-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/389992\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales had hottest summer on record, figures show"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sue CharlesBBC Wales weather presenter<\/p>\n

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

Wales’ previous warmest summer was in 1995, when there was a mean temperature of 16.04C<\/p>\n

Wales has had its hottest summer on record, according to provisional statistics from the Met Office. <\/p>\n

It beats the previous record which has stood for 30 years.<\/p>\n

The mean temperature across the country has been confirmed as 16.06C.<\/p>\n

This is calculated as an average of the overnight low and daytime high temperatures for June, July and August.<\/p>\n

Wales’ previous warmest summer was in 1995, when there was a mean temperature of 16.04C.<\/p>\n

Wales’ hottest day of the year was 12 July, with a temperature of 33.1C recorded at Cardiff’s Bute Park, while last week saw the country’s hottest August Bank Holiday Monday on record when Hawarden, Flintshire, reached 29.6C.<\/p>\n

These temperatures do not quite match the record-breaking 37.1C set at Hawarden on 18 July 2022.<\/p>\n

But this summer is notable for how long-lasting and widespread the heat has been – with temperatures briefly meeting heatwave criteria on four separate occasions for parts of Wales.<\/p>\n

Wales’ heatwave threshold is three consecutive days of temperatures above 25C (or 26C in the far south-east of Wales).<\/p>\n

The heat started early with a June heatwave for the summer solstice. <\/p>\n

A further two were recorded in July, when Wales had its hottest weather of the year, while some parts of the country experienced a fourth heatwave in August.<\/p>\n

This is in line with evidence that summers are getting hotter and drier because of climate change.<\/p>\n

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

Summer 2025 was also Wales’ driest and sunniest since 2022<\/p>\n

Summer 2025 was also Wales’ driest and sunniest since 2022. The driest parts of east Wales saw around half their average rainfall, and even the wettest areas – mainly around Eryri National Park and in the hills of mid and west Wales – experienced average rainfall.<\/p>\n

Met Office figures show that Wales had 79% of its average summer rainfall. The famous summer of 1976 remains Wales’ driest on record, when only 85mm of rain was recorded.<\/p>\n

Reservoir levels are also lower than normal, partly because the dry, hot summer followed Wales’ driest spring in more than 50 years.<\/p>\n

The story has not been entirely straightforward though. It was a wet and windy start to August with Storm Floris bringing disruption.<\/p>\n

Is climate change to blame? <\/p>\n

There are a number of reasons why this summer has been so warm.<\/p>\n

High pressure has regularly been overhead, meaning long spells of dry, calm and sunny weather.<\/p>\n

The dry ground has also helped temperatures to climb.<\/p>\n

Less of the sun’s energy has been used in evaporating moisture leaving more to heat the ground and the air.<\/p>\n

A marine heatwave has also played a part with sea temperatures in parts of the UK up to 3C above normal at times, reducing the usual cooling effect around the coast.<\/p>\n

Scientists are clear that climate change is making our summers hotter and drier.<\/p>\n

Nine of the last 10 summers (2016-2025) have brought temperatures above the long-term norm.<\/p>\n

The number of very hot days with temperatures above 30C (86F) has more than trebled in the most recent decade compared with the 1961-1990 average.<\/p>\n

This year’s heat has knocked the summer of 1976 down to fifth place, meaning Wales’ four hottest summers have occurred since the year 2000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sue CharlesBBC Wales weather presenter PA Media Wales’ previous warmest summer was in 1995, when there was a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-389992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115130684319540338","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}