June was the hottest month recorded in the UK since records began, the Met Office has confirmed.
According to provisional Met Office figures, the average mean temperature for June 2023 was 15.8°C. This average is the highest recorded since 1884, with Scotland as well as England, Wales and Northern Ireland all reporting their warmest June, the forecasters have stated. The previous record was surpassed by 0.9°C, with the increase representing a much greater jump compared to the previous top three Junes, separated by just 0.1°C.
The findings have been followed by a warning from the Met Office, with the forecasting stressing that climate change is having a "huge impact" on temperatures.
Paul Davies, Met Office Climate Extremes Principal Fellow and Chief Meteorologist, said: "The background warming of the Earth’s atmosphere due to human induced climate change has driven up the possibility of reaching record high temperatures.
“Using our UKCP18 climate projections, we can also see that there is a difference in the frequency of these sort of extremes depending on the emissions scenario we follow in the future.
"By the 2050s the chance of surpassing the previous record of 14.9°C could be as high as around 50 per cent, or every other year. Beyond the 2050s the likelihood is strongly governed by our emissions of greenhouse gasses, with the chance increasing further in a high emissions scenario but levelling off under mitigation.”
Following a mid-month heatwave across parts of Scotland and other areas of the four nations, the UK's mean temperature for June 2023 was 15.8°C, some 2.5°C higher than average.
Mark McCarthy, who works within the Met Office team responsible for weather and climate records, said: “It’s officially the hottest June on record for the UK, for mean temperature as well as average maximum and minimum temperature.
“June started with a good deal of high pressure and temperatures initially around average for many, but once that subsided, warm, humid air began to influence temperatures, with 32.2°C the highest temperatures reached.
“What’s striking is the persistent warmth for much of the month, with temperatures widely into the mid 20s Celsius for many and even into the low 30s at times.”
Since 2006, eight out of 12 calendar months have seen average temperature records broken, with dates stretching back to 1884.
A huge 72 ceremonial counties in the Met Office system recorded their hottest June average on record by more 2.5°C.
