Hottest Summer
Britain experienced its hottest summer on record for the second year in a row, the UK's national weather agency announced Tuesday, after weeks of successive heatwaves and widespread drought conditions. "Summer 2026 is provisionally the UK's warmest summer on record with the season's mean temperature made around 130 times more likely due to human-induced climate change," the Met Office said.
The UK measured an average temperature of 16.5C between June and August, breaking the previous record of 16.1C set in 2025. Some 33 countries, spanning from western Europe to the Sahel and central America, recorded their hottest July since records began this year, according to AFP analysis of data from the EU's Copernicus climate observatory.
2,877 excess deaths
Almost three-quarters of England and all of Wales were plunged into drought as rainfall slowed to a trickle. Record-breaking heatwaves in May and June led to an estimated 2'877 excess deaths in England, according to the UK's Health Security Agency, almost double the tally of the whole of summer 2025.
"These records are now breaking with increasing frequency, reflecting the influence of human-induced climate change on the temperatures we're experiencing in the UK," said Amy Doherty from the Met Office. "Particularly notable is how much we've exceeded the previous summer mean temperature record, set just last year."
Climate experts have warned the government that Britain is not ready for the consequences of climate change, with homes and public infrastructure not built for warmer, drier summers.