Climate and climate change

Climate summaries

Timing of summaries and statistics

Those interested in climate change and predictions of future climates should also visit the Climate Change pages.

UK last month

May 2023

May began fine, but soon became much more unsettled, with some wet weather during the period from the 4th to the 11th.  After that, it was much more settled for the remainder of the month, and often rather warm and sunny by day.

Temperatures were somewhat above average on most days during the month, though never by a large margin, so it wasn’t until near the end of the month that anywhere in the UK approached 25 °C, while clear skies allowed temperatures to fall below average by night during the latter part of the month.  The provisional UK mean temperature for May was 11.6 °C, which is 1.0 °C above average, making it the seventh warmest May in a series from 1884.  Rainfall was above average in some southern and eastern counties, but well below normal in many other areas, and for the UK overall rainfall was 55% of average.  Sunshine was above normal in many southern areas, but eastern and northern fringes were slightly duller than average, giving 108% of average for the UK overall.

The UK monthly extremes were as follows:  A maximum temperature of 25.1 °C was recorded at Porthmadog (Gwynedd) on the 30th.  A minimum temperature of -2.2 °C was recorded at Loch Glascarnoch (Ross & Cromarty) on the 2nd.  In the 24 hours ending at 0900 UTC on the 10th, 43.6 mm of rain fell at Harestock Sewage Works (Hampshire).  A wind gust of 54 knots (62 mph) was recorded at Warcop Range (Cumbria) on the 4th.

Regional values for May 2023

Monthly, seasonal and annual summaries 2023

January | February | March | April | May

Winter | Spring

Monthly, seasonal and annual summaries 2022

January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

Winter | Spring | Summer | Autumn

Annual

Monthly, seasonal and annual summaries 2021

January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

Winter | Spring | Summer | Autumn

Annual

Monthly, seasonal and annual summaries 2020

January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

Winter | Spring | Summer | Autumn

Annual

Monthly, seasonal and annual summaries 2019

January | February | March | April | May | JuneJuly | August | September | October | November | December

Winter | Spring | Summer | Autumn

Annual

Monthly, seasonal and annual summaries 2018

January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

Winter | Spring | Summer | Autumn

Annual

Historical reports

We produce an annual State of the UK Climate report

Historical climate and weather reports are available from the digital library and archives

Climate projections

You can find out more about climate change in your local area in this climate change visualisation tool.

This tool is a collaboration with the BBC. It combines our climate projections and records to visualise climate change in the UK.

Maps, charts and Data

Data tables of UK and regional monthly series 

Data tables of monthly station series 

UK maps of monthly data

Temperature, rainfall and sunshine time series charts

Temperature, rainfall and sunshine anomaly charts

Multi-century climate series

Central England Temperature (series begins in 1659).

UK Regional Precipitation (series begins in 1766).