Summer 2026 Enters History

The United Kingdom recorded a new record summer in 2026, as average temperatures surpassed the figure set just one year earlier, signaling an acceleration of the effects of climate change-related warming.

According to France Press, citing the UK Met Office, the average temperature between June and August reached 16.5 degrees Celsius, compared to 16.1 degrees in the summer of 2025, making the summer of 2026 the hottest on record in the UK, which dates back to 1884. The Met Office explained that climate change caused by human activities made the likelihood of a summer with such temperatures approximately 130 times greater than in a climate unaffected by human emissions.

The country also experienced repeated heatwaves and widespread drought, while England and Wales recorded record-high average summer temperatures in their own right. In parallel with these climate figures, the UK Health Security Agency estimated that 2,877 heat-related deaths occurred in England during just two heatwaves in May and June alone.

The Met Office warns that the trend toward hotter summers in Britain will continue as global temperatures keep rising.