Overview

• Provisional Met Office data put the June–August mean at 16.10C, topping the previous record of 15.76C set in 2018 as all five warmest UK summers have occurred since 2000.
• Rapid attribution finds climate change made a summer as hot as 2025 around 70 times more likely, shifting from roughly a 1-in-340-year event in a natural climate to about 1-in-5 years now.
• Forecasters cite persistent high pressure, unusually warm surrounding seas and parched spring soils for the sustained heat, with elevated overnight temperatures boosting the seasonal average.
• The season brought hosepipe bans, drought orders, low reservoir levels, wildfire activity, poor harvests and public-health alerts despite no single-day national heat record being set.
• Japan and South Korea also logged their hottest summers on record, with Japan reporting 84,521 heat-related hospitalisations and parts of South Korea imposing water restrictions during drought.