UK on course for one of the hottest summers ever

THE UK is on course for one of its hottest summers ever recorded, according to the Met Office.

The UK is on course for one of its hottest summers ever recorded, according to the Met Office, with temperatures around one degree higher than average.

Dr Mark McCarthy, of the National Climate Information Centre, said that overall this summer “is certainly looking drier and warmer than average”.

The Met Office’s forecast up until Monday, August 30, which will be the second-last day of summer, reads: “Often cloudy, cool with some light rain or showers for northern and eastern coastal areas. Elsewhere, dry with sunny spells. Warm in the west.”

The Met Office said in a statement that it is still a few days off announcing a definitive ranking at the beginning of September – but the figures so far show the UK’s mean temperature for summer was around one-degree centigrade higher than average at 15.4C (59.7F).

Dr McCarthy said: “Obviously there’s still time before the month and season is over, but summer so far is certainly looking drier and warmer than average.

“That’s despite some of the wet, dull conditions we’ve seen in the South East in particular.

“Some of the flooding seen in London in July has seen some individual stations report almost twice their normal summer rainfall but the north and west of the country has experienced plenty of sunshine through June and July, although most of the country has been duller than average through August.”

An annual series of global climate reports also reveals that 2020 was Europe’s hottest on record by quite a lot, with the average temperature on the continent being 1.9C above the long-term average for 1981-2010.

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