State of the UK Climate
Annual publication which provides an up-to-date assessment of the UK climate
The 2023 report is published as a special issue of the International Journal of Climatology, which is the Royal Meteorological Society journal of climate science and provides a review of the climate and significant meteorological events of the year.
Latest report
- State of the UK Climate 2023 - published 25 July 2024
Highlights of the 2023 report
The UK’s climate continues to change. Recent decades have been warmer, wetter and sunnier than the 20th Century.
- 2023 was the second warmest year on record for the UK in the series from 1884, with only 2022 warmer. Six years in the most recent decade (2014-2023) have been within the top-ten warmest in the series.
- Observations show that extremes of temperature in the UK have been affected much more than average temperature. The number of ‘hot’ days (28C) has more than doubled and ‘very hot’ days (30C) more than trebled for the most recent decade (2014-2023) compared to 1961-1990.
- The UK’s second warmest year of 2023, the warmest June and the September heatwave were all made more likely by climate change.
- 2023 was the seventh wettest year on record for the UK in the series from 1836, with 113% of the 1991-2020 average. March, July, October and December 2023 were all top-ten wettest months.
- Five of the ten wettest years for the UK in the series from 1836 have occurred in the 21st Century.
- For the second successive year, 2023 was the warmest year for UK near-coast sea surface temperature (SST) in a series from 1870.
- Data from the tide gauge at Newlyn, one of the longest available records around the UK, shows sea level is rising, with 2023 the highest year on record since 1916. Other sites around the UK also had their highest or second highest year on record.
Previous reports (PDF format)
- State of the UK Climate 2022 - published online 27 July 2023
- State of the UK Climate 2021 - published online 28 July 2022
- State of the UK Climate 2020 - published online 29 July 2021
- State of the UK Climate 2019 - published online 31 July 2020
- State of the UK Climate 2018 - published online 31 July 2019
- State of the UK Climate 2017 Published online 31 July 2018
- State of the UK Climate 2017 Extremes Supplement Published online November 2018
- State of the UK Climate 2016 Published online 27 July 2017 and updated 1 August 2017
- State of the UK Climate 2016: Phenology supplement Published online 1 September 2017
- State of the UK climate 2015 Published online 25 July 2016
- State of the UK climate 2014 Published online 23 September 2015