The UK has experienced the warmest first nine months of the year on record, according to early provisional figures from the Met Office. The period from January to September 2022 saw a mean temperature of 10.9C, beating the previous all-time high of 10.6C set in 2014.
September has also continued this year's uninterrupted run of each month being warmer than usual, with a mean temperature across the UK of 13.5C, 0.6C above the long-term average. A sequence of heatwaves in July and August led to some of the hottest temperatures ever endured in the UK, with a new high of 40.3C reached on July 19 at Coningsby in Lincolnshire.
England saw the driest July since 1935 and the joint warmest summer on record. But it is too soon to say whether 2022 will end up being the warmest year since records began in 1884, as cooler weather between now and the end of December could bring down the overall annual temperature.
