State of the UK Climate (2025)

This report provides a summary of the state of the UK's climate in 2024. It is one of a series of annual reports published in the International Journal of Climatology (IJC) since 2017. It provides the latest assessment of UK climate trends, variations, and extremes based on the most up to date observations and shows what has already happened to our climate.

The report highlights how the UK's climate has warmed steadily from the 1980s onwards, with the greatest implications from the increasing frequency and intensity of daily temperature extremes.

• The UK is warming: Since the 1980s the UK climate has been warming at a rate of approximately 0.25°C per decade. The last three years have all been in the UK's top five warmest on record.
• Extremes are increasing: Over recent decades, temperature extremes have increased, becoming more frequent and more intense. For example, the hottest summer days have warmed around twice as much as average summer days in some UK areas when comparing the latest decade to 1961-1990.
• Sea level rise is accelerating: UK sea levels have risen 19.5cm since 1901 with the last three years the three highest on record for annual mean sea level.
• Winters are getting wetter: October 2023 to March 2024 was the wettest winter half-year on record. In a series from 1767, six of the ten wettest winter half-years (October to March) for England and Wales have been in the 21st Century so far.
• Longer leaf-on season: The 2024 leaf-on season was 7 days longer than the 1999-2023 baseline. This was largely due to an earlier Spring.
• Reduction in frost days: Air and ground frosts have reduced by around a quarter since the 1980s.