2023 was the second warmest year in the UK since records began in 1884, according to the Met Office.
Meanwhile, last year was the warmest on record in Wales and Northern Ireland.
Last year’s provisional average temperature of 9.97C meant it was just below the 10.03C recorded for the whole of the UK in 2022, the hottest year on record, according to the National Meteorological Service.
However, in terms of minimum temperatures, last year was the UK’s hottest year yet.
“The observations on the British climate are clear. Climate change is affecting the UK’s long-term temperature records, with 2023 once again making history as a very warm year and the second warmest year on record. If the 2023 value had occurred in the 20th century, it would have been the warmest year on record,” said Mike Kendon, senior scientist at the Met Office.
“While our climate will remain variable with periods of cold and wet weather, we have seen several high temperature records collapse in recent decades.
“We expect this trend to continue as our climate continues to change in the coming years due to human-caused climate change,” he added.
Last year there were unusually strong heat waves in June and September.
Eight out of twelve months of the year were warmer than the UK average. June and September were particularly warm compared to average.
It was by far the UK’s hottest June on record and also its hottest September, with annual temperatures peaking at 33.5C on 10 September – only the fifth time this has happened in September, records show.
Despite a cold start to December, the second half of last month was unusually mild, making for a mostly warm and wet month for the UK.
The average temperature in the UK in December was 5.8°C, 1.6°C above average but not high enough to break the record.
Much of the country continued to experience above average rainfall throughout 2023, with several storms causing flooding in the east of Scotland and parts of England.
The five warmest years for the UK are 2020, 2022 and 2023, and the ten warmest years all occur in the 21st century.
Last year is almost certain to be the world’s warmest on record, with 2024 surpassing that year.
Met Office scientists have calculated that the average temperature in 2023 would have been a one-in-500-year event if humans had not altered the climate by producing greenhouse gases.
Now this happens every three years, and by the end of the century it could happen almost every year.
Mr Kendon said: “Climate forecasts suggest an increase in the frequency of hotter, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters, and we are looking at an overall warm, wetter autumn and early winter in 2023-24.”
“Overall, it was another wet year for the UK, with 11 per cent more rainfall than average.
“A warmer atmosphere has a greater ability to hold moisture. So as the climate warms, we expect it to become wetter. Although there are large annual variations, this trend is also clearly visible in observations.”
Source: I News
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