Warmest year ever after mercury hit 10C on average

LAST year was the hottest so far – with average temperatures higher than 10C (50F) for the first time since records began.

The average reading was 10.03C, beating the previous all-time high of 9.88C in 2014, the Met Office said.

It means 15 of the UK’s top 20 warmest years since records began in 1884 have all occurred this century – with the entire top ten in the past two decades. All four UK nations broke records in 2022, with England seeing the highest average at 10.94C, followed by Wales ( 10.23C), Northern Ireland (9.85C) and Scotland (8.50C).

The Met Office said an average of 10C could only be expected once every 500 years before global warming – around 1.2C since the industrial revolution. But it may now occur every three to four years due to climate change.

Research by Met Office scientists found that climate change driven by humans had made the UK’s record- breaking annual temperature around 160 times more likely. The Met Office’s Dr Mark McCarthy called it ‘a notable moment in our climatological history’.

‘It is clear from the observational record that humaninduced global warming is already impacting the UK’s climate,’ he added.

Burning fossil fuels, intensive farming and deforestation are all contributing to the rising global temperature, which in turn is driving extreme weather. In 2022 there were floods in Europe, Pakistan and elsewhere, serious heatwaves and storms in the UK and abroad.

During the UK’s ‘exceptional heatwave’ in July, temperatures peaked at above 40C for the first time ever, reaching 40.3C on July 19. Fire services in England tackled nearly 25,000 wildfires last summer, almost quadruple 2021’s tally.

Now European ski resorts have been struggling to open due to a lack of snow – at the peak of the skiing season.

Professor Stephan Harrison from the University of Exeter said: ‘It reinforces what scientists have been saying for decades now: that climate change is real and is happening.’

‘Notable moment in history’