Met Office names 2022 hottest year on record amid climate change 'impacts'

29.12.2022 - 07:45 / dailyrecord.co.uk

2022 will be the UK’s hottest year on record after the summer’s heatwave and stubbornly high temperatures for much of the year, official figures show.

Met Office data reveals this year’s warmth set a new 139-year annual mean temperature record - and means the UK’s top 10 hottest years have all now occurred since 2003.

The weather experts warned the record-smashing year was ”in line with the genuine impacts we expect as a result of human-induced climate change”.

And despite this month’s cold snap, the provisional figures up to December 27 show all four seasons have fallen in the top 10 in a series which began in 1884.

2022 will also be the warmest year on record in the 364-year Central England temperature series from 1659, the world’s longest instrumental record of temperature.

Dr Mark McCarthy, head of the Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre, said: “2022 is going to be the warmest year on record for the UK.

“While many will remember the summer’s extreme heat, what has been noteworthy this year has been the relatively consistent heat through the year, with every month except December being warmer than average.

“The warm year is in line with the genuine impacts we expect as a result of human-induced climate change.

“Although it doesn’t mean every year will be the warmest on record, climate change continues to increase the chances of increasingly warm years over the coming decades.”

It comes after July’s heatwave was declared a national emergency that posed a risk to life after the Met Office declared an unprecedented Level 4 red warning for extreme heat.

Temperatures above 40C were logged in the UK for the first, while Scotland also smashed its previous record temperature as the mercury hit 34.8C.

But