UK sees warmest year ever as temperatures average 10C for first time
The Met Office says 2022 was the warmest year in the UK on record
Last updated 5th Jan 2023
The UK's annual average temperature topped 10C for the first time in 2022, the warmest year in the country on record.
The Met Office said the mean temperature across the 12 months was 10.03C, beating the previous all-time high of 9.88C in 2014.
It means 15 of the UK's top 20 warmest years on record have all occurred this century - with the entire top 10 within the past two decades.
All four UK nations set new records in 2022, with England seeing the highest average temperature at 10.94C, followed by Wales (10.23C), Northern Ireland (9.85C) and Scotland (8.50C).
Climate change influencing UK weather
The Met Office said a study suggested average temperatures of over 10 degrees would have only occured once every 500 years, in a world without human climate influences.
But in the current climate, that is now likely every three to four years.
Head of the Met Office National Climate Information Centre, Dr Mark McCarthy, said: “Although an arbitrary number, the UK surpassing an annual average temperature of 10°C is a notable moment in our climatological history.
"This moment comes as no surprise, since 1884 all the ten years recording the highest annual temperature have occurred from 2003.
"It is clear from the observational record that human induced global warming is already impacting the UK’s climate.”