UK’s Top 10 hottest years

The Met Office have published a report (Aug 13, 2019) confirming that the 10 hottest years in British recorded history have all taken place in the 21^st century. Other takeaways from the report include the fact that none of the 10 coldest years have occurred in the last 55 years.

Summer 2018 was the joint hottest on record. Five years ago saw the hottest ever recorded year (2014), with 2006 and 2011 rounding out the top three. The other years making up the top ten in order are: 2007, 2017, 2003, 2018, 2004, 2002 and 2005. What’s more, the dry heat which afflicted most of Europe last year (and which was predicted over six weeks in advance by climate specialists) was found to be the joint hottest summer on record in the UK and the overall hottest in England.

Perhaps the most concerning statistic of all is the consistency of the rising temperatures. Given that the years 2009-18 were nearly a full degree warmer than the 30-year period between 1961 and 1990, it seems almost impossible to argue that the world is not experiencing an alarmingly rapid alteration in its weather patterns.

The Met Office study also analysed statistics pertaining to precipitation in the UK since 1884. As proof that climate change affects other facets of weather (not just temperature), six of the 10 wettest winters have all taken place in the last 20 years. The most recent decade saw summers that were 11% wetter than the two decades preceding it and 13% wetter than the period between 1961 and 1990.

Source: Envirotech  and International Journal of Climatology,

 

 

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