Climate change warning as UK experiences hottest year on record in 2022

The UK recorded an average annual temperature of more than 10C, 50F, for the first time in 2022, the national weather service said.

The mean temperature across the 12 months was 10.03C, beating the previous all-time high of 9.88C in 2014.

Such a freakishly hot year is now likely to happen every three to four years, the analysis concluded, whereas it would have struck just once in every 500 years had humans not polluted and warmed the climate.

Dr Nikos Christidis, Met Office climate attribution scientist, warned an average temperature of 10C “could occur almost every year” by the end of this century, if the planet warms by about 2.7C as is currently predicted.

Burning fossil fuels, intensive animal farming and slashing down forests are contributing to the rising global temperature, which in turn is causing violent and extreme weather.

Many other records were smashed around the globe last year, with Europe's worst drought in 500 years, relentless heat in India, Hurricane Ian in Florida and unimaginable flooding in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, all four UK nations set new records in 2022, with England seeing the highest average temperature at 10.94C, followed by Wales, 10.23C, Northern Ireland, 9.85C, and Scotland, 8.50C.

The year also saw temperatures reach their highest ever in the country, with thermometers reaching 40.3C, 104.5F, in Lincolnshire on July 19.

Since 1884, all of the 10 warmest years have occurred after 2003.