Britain’s average temperature topped 10C for the first time ever last year, Met Office reveals 

The UK’s annual average temperature topped 10C for the first time in 2022, as last year was confirmed as the country’s warmest on record.

The mean temperature across the 12 months 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 on record have all occurred this century – with the entire top 10 within the past two decades.

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).

All four UK nations set new records in 2022, with England seeing the highest average temperature at 10.94C (Pictured: Britons enjoy hot weather at Bournemouth in August)

The Met Office dubbed a mean 10C temperature as a one in a 500 year event, but added it will now take place every three to four years due to climate change. 

Research by the body’s scientists has found that climate change driven by humans made the UK’s record-breaking annual temperature around 160 times more likely to occur. 

Dr Mark McCarthy, head of the Met Office National Climate Information Centre, said: ‘Although an arbitrary number, the UK surpassing an annual average temperature of 10C is a notable moment in our climatological history.

‘This moment comes as no surprise, since 1884 all the 10 years recording the highest annual temperature have occurred from 2003.

‘It is clear from the observational record that human-induced global warming is already impacting the UK’s climate.’

Figures also show that 2022 was the warmest on record in the 364-year Central England Temperature (CET) series, which began in 1659 and is the world’s longest-running temperature dataset.

Britons saw top temperatures of 40.3C on July 19 last year, as climate change continues to take its toll on the planet

The Met Office found there were far more hotter than average days than colder than average days compared to recent years

The UK’s ten hottest years (marked in orange) on record have all occurred in the last two decades

The annual mean CET for 2022 was 11.1C, beating the previous record of 11.0C in 2014.

Researchers said there were far more hotter than average days in 2022 than colder than average days, with temperatures peaking during the UK’s ‘exceptional heatwave’ in July.

The spell of hot weather saw temperatures peak at above 40C for the first time ever, reaching 40.3C on July 19.

Labour MP for Warwick and Leamington Matt Western said the figures make for an ‘utterly sobering start to the new year’.

Met Office Climate Attribution Scientist, Dr Nikos Christidis, said: ‘To assess the impact of human induced climate change on the record-breaking year of 2022, we used climate models to compare the likelihood of a UK mean temperature of 10C in both the current climate and with historical human climate influences removed. 

‘The results showed that recording 10C in a natural climate would occur around once every 500 years, whereas in our current climate it could be as frequently as once every three to four years.

‘We also used climate models to project how often this sort of temperature could be recorded in the future. It was possible to calculate that by the end of the century, under a medium emissions scenario (SSP2-4.5), a UK average temperature of 10C could occur almost every year.’

This story is being updated.