State of the UK Climate

Annual publication which provides an up-to-date assessment of the UK climate

The 2023 report is published as a special issue of the International Journal of Climatology, which is the Royal Meteorological Society journal of climate science and provides a review of the climate and significant meteorological events of the year.

Latest report 

Highlights of the 2023 report

The UK’s climate continues to change. Recent decades have been warmer, wetter and sunnier than the 20th Century. 

  • 2023 was the second warmest year on record for the UK in the series from 1884, with only 2022 warmer. Six years in the most recent decade (2014-2023) have been within the top-ten warmest in the series. 
  • Observations show that extremes of temperature in the UK have been affected much more than average temperature. The number of ‘hot’ days (28C) has more than doubled and ‘very hot’ days (30C) more than trebled for the most recent decade (2014-2023) compared to 1961-1990. 
  • The UK’s second warmest year of 2023, the warmest June and the September heatwave were all made more likely by climate change. 
  • 2023 was the seventh wettest year on record for the UK in the series from 1836, with 113% of the 1991-2020 average. March, July, October and December 2023 were all top-ten wettest months.  
  • Five of the ten wettest years for the UK in the series from 1836 have occurred in the 21st Century. 
  • For the second successive year, 2023 was the warmest year for UK near-coast sea surface temperature (SST) in a series from 1870. 
  • Data from the tide gauge at Newlyn, one of the longest available records around the UK, shows sea level is rising, with 2023 the highest year on record since 1916. Other sites around the UK also had their highest or second highest year on record. 

Previous reports (PDF format)

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