The UK has recorded 630 hours of sunshine from 1 March until 27 May, beating its previous sunniest spring in 2020 by 4 hours, in a series which dates back to 1910.

Last week, we confirmed that both Scotland and Northern Ireland had already had their respective sunniest springs on record, beating their previous sunniest in 2020.

Met Office Scientist, Emily Carlisle said: “The UK has now, provisionally, recorded its sunniest spring on record, with still a few days of the season to go. We all remember the exceptionally sunny spring of 2020, but that title has now been surpassed by the spring of 2025. Now, seven of the top ten sunniest springs on records for the UK since 1910, have occurred since the year 2000.

“It has indeed been an extremely sunny and dry spring for the majority, but with a few days left of the season and more unsettled weather this week, it’s too early to say what will happen with other records. We will bring more updates as we have them this week, and will be releasing the full May and Spring 2025 statistics on Monday 2 June.”

How do we know when records are broken?

The answer lies in a Met Office dataset that's been quietly mapping our weather history for around the last two centuries. 

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