Summer 2026 expected to be declared UK’s hottest on record
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The Met Office confirmed that summer 2026 was the UK's hottest on record, with a provisional average mean temperature of 16.5C across June, July and August, the warmest in a dataset stretching back to 1884. The season featured five widespread heatwaves and 40 days above 30C, well beyond the previous record of 34 days, while a Met Office climate change study found the extreme heat had been made around 130 times more likely by human-induced warming. England, Wales and Northern Ireland all set new regional summer records, while Scotland recorded its joint-sixth warmest summer, and the persistent drought and heat also fuelled destructive wildfires, including one in Stourbridge that destroyed 19 homes.
The peak temperature was 38.1C at Kew Gardens on 13 August, provisionally the UK's fifth-hottest day ever, though short of the 40.3C all-time record set at Coningsby in 2022. More striking was the heat's persistence: temperatures of 35C or higher were recorded on ten days across four separate months, doubling the previous record, while 37C or higher was reached on three days, a figure matched only twice before in UK history. Drought was declared across all of Wales and more than two-thirds of England amid prolonged dry spells, though the pattern broke in late August, bringing flash flooding and, in Sheffield, more rain in a single week than had fallen across the rest of the season combined.
- Summer 2026 was the UK's hottest on record at 16.5C average
- Climate change made the extreme heat around 130 times more likely
- Record 40 days above 30C, plus drought and destructive wildfires
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Summer 2026 has been confirmed by the Met Office as the UK's hottest since records began in 1884. The finding is based on the average temperature across June, July and August, and follows a season of repeated heatwaves and unusually high numbers of very hot days across the country.
The Met Office is the UK's national weather and climate service, and its long-running temperature records are the standard reference for comparing one summer with another. Its climate scientists also study how far human-caused climate change has altered the odds of extreme heat occurring, which is why such assessments are often linked to wider discussions about a warming climate.
The scale and persistence of the heat had knock-on effects, including drought conditions in parts of the country and wildfires, showing how prolonged high temperatures can strain water supplies, land and emergency services well beyond the weather itself.