Britain is on the verge of marking 2025 as its hottest year since records began, according to a flurry of recent reports from the Met Office and climate scientists. As the year draws to a close, the UK’s average annual temperature is tracking at 10.05°C, nudging just ahead of the previous record of 10.03°C set only three years ago in 2022. While a forecasted cold spell over the Christmas period could still sway the final tally, experts say it’s now more likely than not that 2025 will claim the title of the UK’s warmest year on record.
“In terms of our climate, we are living in extraordinary times,” remarked Mike Kendon, a senior scientist at the Met Office, in statements carried by BBC News, Sky News, and other outlets. “The changes we are seeing are unprecedented in observational records back to the 19th century.” Kendon’s words echo the mounting sense of urgency among climate experts, as the UK’s weather patterns continue to shatter historical norms.
The Met Office’s projection uses observed temperatures up to December 21, 2025, and assumes that the remaining days of the year will follow long-term December averages. Definitive figures are expected in early January 2026, but the odds are now stacked in favor of a new record. This would mark only the second time in observational history—stretching back to 1884—that the UK’s annual mean temperature has topped 10°C.
The trend is unmistakable. Four of the last five years will now appear in the top five warmest years since records began, and all of the top 10 warmest years will have occurred in just the last two decades. According to Daily Mail, since the start of the 21st century, a new record has been set for UK annual mean temperature six times: in 2002, 2003, 2006, 2014, 2022, and now, potentially, 2025. Each record, Kendon notes, is “progressively warmer than the last.”
What’s driving this relentless rise? The answer, scientists say, is clear: human-caused climate change. “Anthropogenic [human-caused] climate change is causing the warming in the UK as it’s causing the warming across the world,” explained Amy Doherty, a climate scientist at the Met Office, in an interview with BBC News. “What we have seen in the past 40 years, and what we’re going to continue to see, is more records broken, more extremely hot years… so what was normal 10 years ago, 20 years ago, will become [relatively] cool in the future.”
The impacts of this warming trend have been starkly felt throughout 2025. The country experienced persistent warmth through the spring and summer, with the mean summer temperature reaching 16.10°C—1.51°C above the long-term average—making it the hottest summer ever recorded in the UK, according to Daily Mail. Temperatures peaked at 35.8°C in Faversham, Kent, on July 1. While this fell short of the UK’s all-time high of 40.3°C set in 2022, scientists warn that the likelihood of such extreme temperatures is accelerating. A recent study in the journal Weather found that the chance of exceeding 40°C in the UK is rising fast, raising concerns about the nation’s ability to cope with future heatwaves.
Indeed, 2025 was marked by four separate heatwaves between June and August, each triggering heat-health alerts from the UK Health Security Agency and prompting hosepipe bans in several regions. The heat was compounded by a lack of rainfall: spring 2025 was the UK’s sixth driest since 1836, with rainfall 16 percent below the seasonal average, as reported by AFP. This dryness pushed large swathes of England, Wales, and eastern Scotland into official drought, declared by the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales. Eastern Scotland even entered “significant water scarcity,” according to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
The result was not only parched landscapes but also a record-breaking wildfire season. By late April, the area burned by wildfires had already reached a new annual high—more than 47,100 hectares—smashing the previous record of 28,100 hectares set in 2019, as reported by BBC News. These fires, fueled by the dry, warm weather, underscored the growing risks to communities, agriculture, and natural habitats.
Adding to the extraordinary nature of 2025, the UK also saw its sunniest year on record. Up to December 15, the country had logged 1,622 hours of sunshine, surpassing the previous record set in 2003. “The record-breaking sunshine across the UK this year was driven by the frequent influence of high pressure that reduced cloud cover and brought sunny skies for many,” Kendon explained to Daily Mail. “Spring was exceptional, and many will remember the long spells of days with largely unbroken sunshine.”
But while sunny days might be welcomed by many, the persistent high pressure also contributed to the drought conditions. “There’s a huge deficit to be made up, and there’s a huge implication, not just for people who are farming the land [and] growing food, but our rivers, our aquifers, our availability of drinking water,” said Jess Neumann, associate professor of hydrology at the University of Reading, in comments to BBC News. The repeated swings between drought and flooding are making it increasingly difficult for communities to adapt.
Looking ahead, scientists warn that the UK can expect more of the same—if not worse. “The conditions that people are going to experience are going to continue to change as they have in the last few years [with] more wildfires, more droughts, more heatwaves,” said Dr. Doherty. “But also it’s going to get wetter in the winter half-year, so from October to March… the rain that does fall will fall more intensely, and in heavier rain showers, causing that kind of flooding that we’ve been seeing this year as well.”
Globally, 2025 is also shaping up to be among the warmest years ever recorded, with the European Copernicus climate service projecting it as the world’s second or third hottest year. Yet, as the world heats up, the international consensus on climate action appears increasingly fragile. The BBC notes that the US and some other major fossil fuel producers have recently scaled back their net zero commitments, raising concerns about the pace of global efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The UK’s experience in 2025 stands as a stark reminder of the accelerating pace of climate change. As Bob Ward from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment told Sky News, “This is further evidence of the impacts of climate change in the UK, and the urgent need for us to stop warming by leading the world in reaching net zero emissions of greenhouse gases as soon as possible.”
While the final confirmation of 2025’s record status awaits the turn of the year, the message from scientists is clear: the UK’s climate is changing faster than ever before, and the time for decisive action is running out.
