UK summer temperatures: how hot the days now get

UK summer temperatures are measured best by the average daytime high across June, July and August. On that measure the Met Office's gridded record, which starts in 1884, puts 2026 top at 21.31°C, ahead of the long-standing 1976 benchmark. Four of the six highest values have come since 2018.

Source: Met Office HadUK-Grid, UK mean daily maximum temperature · checked 29 October 2026

How we read this Each dot is the June–August average of daily maximum temperatures across the UK, from the "sum" column of the file updated 1 October 2026. We show every year from 1991 plus 1976 for comparison; 2026 is the latest data and the Met Office may revise it.

Show the numbers

Label	°C	Note
1976	21.00°	1976: the old benchmark
1991	18.34°
1992	18.46°
1993	17.49°
1994	18.69°
1995	20.64°
1996	18.87°
1997	19.38°
1998	17.62°
1999	18.77°
2000	18.39°
2001	18.57°
2002	18.39°
2003	20.26°
2004	18.93°
2005	19.09°
2006	20.49°
2007	18.09°
2008	18.40°
2009	18.99°
2010	18.96°
2011	17.97°
2012	17.74°
2013	19.75°
2014	19.28°
2015	18.21°
2016	18.97°
2017	18.76°
2018	20.62°
2019	19.36°
2020	18.84°
2021	19.57°
2022	20.56°
2023	19.75°
2024	18.62°
2025	20.66°
2026	21.31°	2026, provisional

How hot are UK summers now?

A typical recent summer day peaks at a little under 19°C when averaged across the whole country and season. Calculated from Met Office data, the 1991–2020 average of summer daytime highs is 18.88°C, against 18.04°C for 1961–1990. That gap of almost a degree sounds small, but it is an average over every day, every place and every cloudy afternoon.

The hot summers sit well above that baseline. In the Met Office mean-maximum file the top six are 2026 (21.31°C), 1976 (21.00°C), 2025 (20.66°C), 1995 (20.64°C), 2018 (20.62°C) and 2022 (20.56°C). Only 1976 and 1995 come from before this century.

Source: Met Office HadUK-Grid, UK mean daily maximum temperature · checked 29 October 2026

How we read this The two averages are our own arithmetic on the Met Office file (calculated from Met Office data, nothing adjusted). They are season-long averages, so they sit far below any single hot day.

Show the numbers

Label	°C	Note
1961–1990 average	18.04°
1991–2020 average	18.88°
Summer 2026	21.31°	Provisional

Was summer 2026 the hottest UK summer on record?

By daytime highs, yes on current data. The 2026 June–August mean maximum of 21.31°C is the highest in the file, and the mean temperature for the season, 16.51°C, is also the highest. We call it provisional because it is the latest entry and the Met Office's own end-of-summer statistics release was not located.

There is a wrinkle worth knowing. The Met Office announced in 2025 that summer 2025 was the warmest on record by mean temperature, at a provisional 16.10°C, while 1976 still held the daytime-high record. The October 2026 file now shows 2025 at 16.12°C and puts 2026 above both. "Hottest" depends on which measure is used, so we name the measure each time.

On video: What is a heatwave? UK Heatwave Explained - UK Weather - Met Office explains

“What is a heatwave? UK Heatwave Explained - UK Weather - Met Office explains”, a video from the Met Office - UK Weather channel on YouTube. The Met Office explains its official UK heatwave definition: county thresholds of 25-28C that must be met or beaten for three days in a row, shown on a map. It is their video, not ours, and it loads from YouTube only when you press play.

Source: Met Office HadUK-Grid, UK mean daily maximum temperature · checked 29 October 2026

How we read this Monthly UK averages of daily maximum temperature from the same file. They average out the hottest days, so a month at 22.6°C can still contain days well above 30°C in some places.

Show the numbers

Label	°C	Note
June 2026	19.9°
July 2026	22.6°	Hottest month
August 2026	21.4°

What is the highest temperature recorded in the UK?

The UK record is 40.3°C, set at Coningsby in Lincolnshire on 19 July 2022. According to the Met Office report on the July 2022 heatwave, it beat the previous record by 1.6°C, and 46 stations that day went above the old mark of 38.7°C. That earlier record had stood only since 25 July 2019, at Cambridge Botanic Garden.

The same report counts just four dates with a UK maximum above 38°C: 10 August 2003, 25 July 2019, and 18 and 19 July 2022. Three of the four are within the last decade.

Source: Met Office, Unprecedented extreme heatwave, July 2022 · checked 29 October 2026

How we read this The 2019 and 2022 values are stated as records in the report text. The 2003 value at Faversham appears only as a map label in that report, so we show it as one of the four dates above 38°C, not as a confirmed earlier record.

Show the numbers

Label	°C	Note
10 Aug 2003, Faversham	38.5°
25 Jul 2019, Cambridge	38.7°
19 Jul 2022, Coningsby	40.3°	Current UK record

How do the four nations compare?

England holds the highest national figure, and Northern Ireland the lowest. The Met Office climate extremes table lists each nation's highest daily maximum; three of the four were set in July 2022.

Will UK summers keep getting hotter?

The Met Office's projections say they are likely to. Its UKCP18 headline findings estimate that by 2070, under high emissions, summers warm by 1.3°C to 5.1°C, and the hottest summer days by 3.8°C to 6.8°C by the 2070s. What that means for the odds of a 2018-type summer, and for whether a home needs cooling, is covered on the page asking whether UK homes need cooling.

Met Office scientists also found that human-caused climate change made a summer as hot as 2025 around 70 times more likely. For a household, the practical point is that hot spells are becoming a normal part of the calendar, not a rare event.

What does this mean inside a home?

Outdoor averages are only the starting point. UKHSA names top-floor flats and rooms with large unshaded windows among the places that heat up most, and the English Housing Survey now finds more homes overheating; see house overheating in summer. For practical steps that cost little, read keeping cool without air conditioning, and for the health side, the heat deaths chart.

Questions this data raises

What is the average summer temperature in the UK?

Averaged over 1991–2020, the UK's June–August mean daily maximum is 18.88°C, calculated from Met Office data. The mean temperature, which includes the cooler nights, is lower: 14.59°C for the same period.

Which year had the hottest UK summer?

On daytime highs, 2026 leads the Met Office file at 21.31°C (provisional), ahead of 1976 at 21.00°C. On mean temperature the Met Office named 2025 the warmest in its 2025 release, and the October 2026 file now shows 2026 higher still.

Has the UK ever reached 40°C?

Once. Coningsby in Lincolnshire recorded 40.3°C on 19 July 2022, the first time the UK passed 40°C.

Why does this site use the summer mean maximum rather than heatwave counts?

The mean maximum is published as a long, consistent Met Office series back to 1884, so years can be compared fairly. A count of days above 28°C or 30°C was not assembled from a primary source, so we do not chart one.

Sources for this page

1. Met Office HadUK-Grid, UK mean daily maximum temperature metoffice.gov.uk
2. summer 2025 was the warmest on record metoffice.gov.uk
3. Met Office report on the July 2022 heatwave metoffice.gov.uk
4. Met Office climate extremes table metoffice.gov.uk
5. UKCP18 headline findings metoffice.gov.uk

All checked 29 October 2026. How we choose and read sources: Methods & sources.