2022 was a record-breaking year for weather and is a sign of the UK’s changing climate.

The Met Office has published the annual ‘State of the UK Climate’ report, examining the weather of 2022 in the context of long-term climate records.

The report highlights how the UK’s climate continues to change, with recent decades warmer, wetter and sunnier than the 20th century.

Although the UK has warmed at a broadly consistent rate compared to the observed change in global mean temperature, observations show that in the UK temperature extremes are changing much faster than the average temperature.

A new all-time temperature record of 40.3°C was set on 19 July during an unprecedented heatwave, exceeding the previous record by a wide margin and smashing records for many long-running stations.

Not only was 2022 the first year in the UK when 40°C was recorded, it was also the warmest year in records back to 1884. The world’s longest running instrumental temperature series dating back to 1659, the Central England Temperature (CET) record, also recorded its hottest year on record.

Met Office studies found both the record warm year and July heatwave were made more likely by human induced climate change.

A key feature of 2022 was the persistent warmth throughout the year. All months of the year except December were warmer than the 1991-2020 average. The graph below of UK average daily maximum temperature clearly shows how many more days in the year were above average than below average. The unprecedented July heatwave stands out, as does the cold spell in December as the only significant cold spell of the year.