Met Office

Climate

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  1. Climate change guide thumb Our guide looks at all aspects of climate, climate science and climate change.

Climate

Climate encompasses a range of areas, from statistical records to computer model projections and climate change.

The Met Office hosts the National Climate Information Centre which holds national and regional climate information for the United Kingdom. Digitised records for the whole country date back to 1910 and data for the Central England Temperature record dates back to 1654 - the world's longest instrumental record. 

Climate change refers to a change in the average state of our climate. To find out more about how our climate is changing, view our climate change guide. The guide aims to answer questions such as how our climate has changed in the past, how it might change in the future and what the impacts of these changes may be.

Our climate science research within the Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme is funded by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The purpose of the programme is to provide up-to-date, robust and traceable scientific evidence to government on climate variability and climate change.

This evidence helps inform key policy areas with a focus on climate monitoring and attribution, dangerous climate change (its potential impacts, vulnerabilities and risks), and advice to inform UK and international policy for renewable energy, mitigation and adaptation. 

To this end, the scientific research is organised around a set of scientific themes, covering climate observations, understanding climate processes and extremes, climate model development and evaluation, and climate prediction.

  • Temperature is one of the parameters we use to study the climate.

    Guide

    We answer questions such as 'what is climate change?' and 'how has our climate changed?'.

  • UK climate

    The Met Office holds the nation's weather and climate records. You can find summaries, climate figures and much more for the UK here.

  • Climate change news and hot topics

    Climate news

    The latest climate change news stories from the Met Office and hot topics from around the world.

  • Climate services

    Consultancy and services for a changing climate.

  • Climate change is a global issue

    Policy relevant science

    The Government funds the Met Office to do core research in support of practical decision-making.

  • External websites

    Related resources

    A list of climate change websites, details of our climate change publications, and information on the Met Office Hadley Centre.

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