Climate summaries
Overview of weather across the UK for previous months, seasons and years
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.
Monthly, seasonal and annual summaries 2023
January | February | March | April | May
Monthly, seasonal and annual summaries 2022
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Winter | Spring | Summer | Autumn
Monthly, seasonal and annual summaries 2021
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Winter | Spring | Summer | Autumn
Monthly, seasonal and annual summaries 2020
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Winter | Spring | Summer | Autumn
Monthly, seasonal and annual summaries 2019
January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December
Winter | Spring | Summer | Autumn
Monthly, seasonal and annual summaries 2018
January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December
Winter | Spring | Summer | Autumn
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
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).