The UK’s hottest recorded temperature now stands at 40.3C, set in July 2022. Before 1990, the UK had not seen 37C.
But these records are almost certainly going to keep getting broken.
If global warming continues at its current pace, temperatures in the mid-forties could be a serious possibility for the UK by 2050, according to Met Office projections.
And while not every year will be hotter than the last, the UK could face even higher temperatures in the second half of this century.
Higher temperatures dry out the soil too. With less moisture available, less heat energy is used up by evaporation – leaving more energy to warm the air and amplifying the hot conditions.
Some scientists have also argued that climate change could be making high-pressure systems more likely to get “stuck” – although this is not yet certain.
This can create a “heat dome” that traps hot air underneath, which is what Europe has been experiencing this week.
“Climate change [is] loading the atmosphere with extra heat and making extreme temperatures far more intense than they would have been in the past,” said Dr Akshay Deoras, senior research scientist at the University of Reading.
Scientists stress that the only way to limit rising summer temperatures is to rapidly cut global emissions of planet-warming gases, such as carbon dioxide.
