Summer of 2026 was UK’s hottest on record, Met Office says

A person using an electric fan to cool down on the underground in London. Education, health services and transport all suffered in the heat. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA View image in fullscreen A person using an electric fan to cool down on the underground in London. Education, health services and transport all suffered in the heat. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA Summer of 2026 was UK’s hottest on record, Met Office says Meteorologists say mean average temperature of 16.5C was made 130 times more likely ’s summer was the UK’s hottest on record, according to provisional data, and the Met Office said the season’s mean temperature was made 130 times more likely . Record-breaking and back-to-back heatwaves have scorched much of Europe. In England, temperatures peaked at 38.1C (100.1F) at Kew Gardens in London on 13 August, and June had already been confirmed as the country’s hottest since records began in 1884. Scientists have said these heatwaves are only possible because of the climate crisis driven . The Met Office said an average mean UK temperature of 16.5C made this summer provisionally the warmest on record as well as the warmest season in a series going back to 1884. England, Wales and Northern Ireland broke their respective mean temperature records for summer while Scotland recorded its joint sixth hottest summer. This is the second year in a row that temperature records have been broken, with 2025 and 2026 both the warmest UK summers since records began. The infamous summer of 1976 is now the seventh warmest on record in terms of mean temperature. Katie White, the minister for climate transition, said it was a “brutal reminder that we’re not waiting for climate change to arrive in Britain, we’re living in the middle of it. With kids too hot to sleep, families worrying about older relatives, farmers watching fields dry out, and firefighters and our armed forces battling wildfires, we’ve all woken up to a reality none of us wants for the people and places we love.” View image in fullscreen Smoke rising from a major wildfire at Dunwich Heath, near Leiston, in late July. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PAEngland is on track to record its highest ever number of heat-related deaths this summer. The UK Health Security Agency announced on 30 July that an estimated 2,877 people had died in the May and June heatwaves alone. A study conducted ’s record-breaking heat was made about 130 times more likely because of human-induced climate change.