UK's 20th Century Climate 'Has Now Gone'
Climate extremes have become the new 'normal' for the UK, scientists have warned. The UK's climate of the 20th century 'has now gone', the Met Office said in a new report. The warning comes after 2025 was confirmed as the UK's warmest year in records dating back to 1884, the sixth time the record has been broken in the 21st century.
Key Findings from the Met Office Report
The number of days over 30C has quadrupled in areas such as Greater London since the late 20th century, according to the Met Office report. Mike Kendon, Met Office climate information scientist and lead author of the report, said: 'We are right now living in a time of historic and unprecedented change and in terms of temperature, on annual, seasonal, monthly and daily timescales, this evidence shows climate of the 20th century has now gone.' He added that the UK's climate is 'on the move, literally', with new warmer conditions emerging in the south east and northern uplands losing the coldest habitats from the tops of mountains.
Record-Breaking Year 2025
The report on the record hot, drought year of 2025 is published as this year sees the third heatwave in as many months, as human-caused climate change – mostly caused by burning fossil fuels – drives more extreme weather. The last four years have all been among the top five warmest on record, and the latest 10 years from 2016 to 2025 were 1.33C warmer than the period from 1961 to 1990, the report shows.
Impacts on People and Wildlife
Ruth Fuller, WWF's chief advisor on climate change, said: 'Britain's climate is changing fast, and the devastating consequences are already being felt by both people and wildlife. More intense heat and longer dry spells are not only dangerous for our health but are putting increased pressure on habitats and the wildlife that depends on them.' She added: 'Without urgent action on climate change and nature loss, some of our most treasured species could disappear from our islands. This report should be a wake-up call that tackling climate change and restoring nature are inseparable if we want a safer future for both people and wildlife.'
Key Observations from 2025
Key observations from 2025 show the year included the UK's warmest spring and summer on record, a record 297 marine heatwave days in the seas around the UK, and the sunniest year in a series dating back to 1910. It also showed most of England and Wales received less than half the average rainfall in spring, and some places had less than a third, while the winter half-years in the last decade have been wetter than in the past. Since 1901, the sea levels around the UK have risen by about 20.1cm but the rate of rise is accelerating.
Impact on Trees and Vegetation
2025 saw high seed yields, likely associated with the extreme warm, dry and sunny conditions between April and September, the Woodland Trust said, particularly in blackthorns and oaks – which had a 'mast year' of acorns. Alex Marshall, of the Woodland Trust said: 'In 2025, Nature's Calendar citizen science observations showed the highest seed yields on record (since 2001) for some common UK tree and shrub species. Seed yields of Blackthorn, Pedunculate oak and Sessile oak in 2025 were particularly high. For oak this phenomenon is often described as a 'mast' year.' He added: 'Producing this much seed comes at a real cost. Trees exhaust their reserves, leaving them weaker and more exposed to the heat and recent dry conditions we've been seeing.'
