Britain has just experienced one of its warmest starts to November in living memory, with meteorologists labeling the recent spell of weather as nothing short of “remarkable.” As the leaves turned in London’s Regent’s Park and across the UK, temperatures soared well above the seasonal norm, shattering records and leaving many to wonder if autumn had been replaced by a second spring.
The standout moment came on Bonfire Night, Thursday, November 5, 2025, when the mercury refused to dip below 14C in several locations—making it the warmest ever recorded. According to the BBC, this smashed the previous Bonfire Night record of 13.9C set back in 1938 at Gordon Castle in Scotland. In Teddington, London, temperatures overnight reached an astonishing 14.4C, provisionally marking the mildest Bonfire Night on record, as reported by The Independent.
But it wasn’t just a single night of unseasonable warmth. This November has seen an unprecedented 33 new high daily minimum temperature records set across the UK, with dozens of weather stations consistently reporting overnight lows exceeding 13C. Typical overnight temperatures for early November usually range from a chilly 2C in Scotland to 5C in southern England. Yet, this year, they hovered at a balmy 10 to 14C—numbers more commonly seen during the day at this time of year. Daytime highs were even more striking: Plymouth, for example, reached 19C on Wednesday, November 6, a full 5 or 6 degrees above the usual average.
So what’s behind this extraordinary warmth? Meteorologists point to a combination of factors, chief among them the position of the jet stream and a so-called “marine heatwave” in the Atlantic. The jet stream, a powerful band of winds that steers weather systems across the Atlantic, has been sitting to the north of the UK, allowing warm air from the Azores—an island group closer to the equator—to flow freely over the British Isles. Add to that sea surface temperatures to the southwest of Britain, which are up to 2C above average, and you’ve got a recipe for record-breaking warmth.
Jim Dale, meteorologist for British Weather Services, told Express: “The ocean temperatures around the UK are still high, and this is going to be putting heat and energy into the atmosphere. As well as giving more power to storms when they develop, this anomaly will bring higher temperatures to the UK when winds come from the south or the west. This is a symptom of the changing climate and will continue to have an impact on the UK weather.”
The Met Office echoed this sentiment, explaining that warm southerly winds, bolstered by unusually high sea surface temperatures, have been responsible for pushing temperatures into the mid- to high-teens Celsius—almost 10C above the November average. “Combined with cloudy nights which helped trap warmth in, it led to these mild overnight temperatures,” the Met Office said. “Of course, climate change is elevating the background temperature, making events like this more likely. But there is no direct attribution to climate change through an attribution study.”
October 2025 had already set the stage for this exceptional run, with the mean temperature across the UK provisionally 0.7C above the 1991-2020 average. Scotland and Northern Ireland experienced slightly warmer conditions than the rest of the country, according to the Met Office. This meant that as November began, the UK was primed for another round of warmth, helped along by cloudy skies that acted like a blanket, trapping heat overnight.
The impact of these unusual conditions has been felt across the country. Weather stations in the South West and Wales, including Cornwall, Devon, Dyfed, and Clwyd, broke records, as did stations in Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Cumbria, and Humberside. The Met Office described it as “an exceptional run of overnight warmth,” and noted that the phenomenon was widespread, not just confined to one or two locations.
Looking ahead, forecasters say the mild weather is set to continue for a bit longer. Temperatures will remain above average through the weekend of November 8-9 and into the following week, with only a slight dip expected as winds shift from the south to the west. BBC Weather predicts that Saturday, November 8, will start murky with fog—slow to clear in some areas—but will give way to sunny spells and temperatures ranging from 11 to 15C from north to south. Saturday night will be a touch cooler, with some eastern parts of Scotland and England falling to 5 or 6C amid patchy fog.
By Sunday morning, rain is forecast to move into Northern Ireland and then progress eastwards, reaching all but East Anglia and southeast England by dusk. Even with the rain, temperatures are expected to stay mild, between 10 and 14C. The Met Office adds that unsettled weather, with rain and breezy spells, is likely to continue into next week, especially in western and southern areas. Locally strong winds may accompany the rain, but some drier spells are also predicted, particularly in the east and north.
There are hints that temperatures may eventually return closer to the seasonal average towards the middle of November, but confidence in the long-range forecast remains low. Typically, average daytime temperatures at this time of year range from 8C in northern Scotland to 11C in southern England, with nighttime lows between 2C and 5C. For now, though, Britain remains under the influence of warm Atlantic air, with low pressure to the west and high pressure to the east funneling balmy gusts from the south.
Met Office meteorologist Alex Deakin told Express: “It is very mild, but that will slowly change into the weekend, and we will lose the southerly wind and get more of a westerly breeze. But that isn’t coming in from a cold direction, and it is still bringing air in from a relatively warm Atlantic, so although temperatures will dip a little bit into the weekend, we won’t see a massive drop in the numbers.”
For those planning to attend Remembrance Services on Sunday, November 9, including the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in London, the weather will be mixed but generally mild—certainly more comfortable than the typical November chill.
As the UK basks in this unusual warmth, the question remains: Are these records a fleeting quirk, or a sign of things to come? While the experts stop short of attributing this single event directly to climate change, they agree that rising background temperatures are making such extremes more likely. For now, Britons can only marvel at the balmy autumn, keep an umbrella handy for the approaching rain, and wonder what surprises the weather will bring next.
