Met Office publish fourth annual ‘State of the UK Climate’ report

On 31 July 2018, the Met Office published its fourth annual State of the UK Climate report. The report provides a summary of the UK weather and climate through the calendar year 2017, alongside the historical context for a number of essential climate variables. 

The majority of this report is based on observations of temperature, precipitation, sunshine and wind speed from the UK land weather station network as managed by the Met Office and a number of key partners and co‐operating volunteers. The observations are carefully managed and conform to current best practice observational standards as defined by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). 

The report confirms that the UK climate is warming, with the average temperature over the last decade (2008-2017) 0.8 °C warmer than the 1961-1990 average, with 8% more rainfall and 6% more sunshine in the same period. In contrast to summer 2018, UK summers have been notably wetter over the most recent decade, with a 20% increase in rainfall compared to 1961-1990.

Source: Met Office, 31 July 2018