Last month was the warmest May in 140 years, since we started keeping track in the UK.
This may have come as a surprise to many, who felt it was more like Miserable May with so much rain falling.
Despite the washout, however, it was indeed warmer than normal – and so was meteorological spring (March, April and May as a whole), which was also the warmest on record.
Many didn’t even get a chance to sunbathe as a short-lived benefit from climate breakdown, because the high temperatures were mainly to do with how hot it was overnight (nobody likes sweaty sheets) and warm conditions in the northern half of the UK.
So is it actually going to feel like summer now it‘s June?
Not this weekend, sorry.
While there won’t be torrential rain or snow, the weather is looking pretty pedestrian, with plenty of clouds and the possibility of showers, though the sun will peek through on occasion.
According to the Met Office, in London this weekend it will be ‘largely dry with sunny spells but the chance of a shower on most days’.
There will be ‘some rather cool temperatures overnight’.
TEmperatrrues in London are set to see highs of 19°C on Saturday, and 18°C on Sunday, but it is likely to be cloudy throughout the weekend.
In the UK overall, there will be ‘sunshine and blustery showers in the north’ while it will be drier across southern parts of the UK.
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Last month, average temperature was 13.1°C, beating the previous record set in 2008 by a full 1°C.
The record warmth for the UK comes as the world has experienced a streak of record temperatures, continuing for 11 months in a row. April 2024 was earth’s hottest ever recorded, data released last month showed.
An Italian weather service has predicted that by June 15, parts of the UK will feel like they are 30°C in a heatwave.
Although the mercury will be low to mid-20s in reality, the forecaster claimed high humidity would make it seem much warmer.
But the Met Office so far isn’t predicting this, saying that there could be dry conditions and ‘periods of sunshine’ but by June 15 there is ‘a greater chance that more unsettled weather could develop’.
In terms of the year so far, the stats do show that it has been very wet, so you don’t need to doubt if the Met Office has been living in the same country by saying it was so hot.
The UK had its wettest spring since 1986 and the sixth wettest on record.
An average 301.7mm of rain fell on the country across March, April and May, nearly a third (32%) more than usual for the season.
The sun was in short supply in May too, with the UK seeing 17% fewer hours of sunshine than average, and England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all having below average sunshine hours.
Climate change caused by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests, is pushing up temperatures globally, and causing more extreme weather such as droughts, heatwaves and intense rainfall.
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