Climate of the United Kingdom

thumb|[[Köppen climate classification|Köppen climate types of the UK (1991-2020):

]]

The United Kingdom straddles the higher mid-latitudes between 49° and 61°N on the western seaboard of Europe. Since the UK is always in or close to the path of the polar front jet stream, frequent changes in pressure and unsettled weather are typical. Many types of weather can be experienced in a single day. The basic climate of the UK annually is wet and cool in winter, spring, and autumn with frequent cloudy skies, and drier and warmer (though usually not hot) in summer.

The climate in the United Kingdom is defined as a humid temperate oceanic climate, or Cfb on the Köppen climate classification system, a classification it shares with most of north-west Europe. Regional climates are influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and latitude. Northern Ireland, Wales and western parts of England and Scotland are generally the mildest, wettest, and windiest regions of the UK, being closest to the Atlantic Ocean, and temperature ranges there are seldom extreme. Eastern areas are drier and less windy. Northern areas are generally cooler and wetter and have slightly larger temperature ranges than southern areas, which are generally warmer and drier. The south of England is the least exposed to polar air masses from the north, so winters are the least cold, though heavy overcast conditions are common. Summer temperatures in the south of England are cool and range from .

If the air masses are strong enough in their respective areas during the summer, there can sometimes be a large difference in temperature between the far north of Scotland (including its islands) and the south-east of England – often a difference of 10–15 °C (18–27 °F) but sometimes as much as 20 °C (36 °F) or more.

England

Averages

England generally has low maximum temperatures year round. England is also sunnier throughout the year than Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, the sunniest month is July, with an average of 193.5 hours. It rains on fewer days every month throughout the year than the rest of the UK, and rainfall totals are less in every month, with the driest month, May, averaging . The climate of south-west England displays a seasonal temperature variation, although it is less extreme than most of the United Kingdom with milder winters. Gales are less common in England compared to Scotland; however, on some occasions, there can be strong winds, and rarely, the non-tropical remains of Atlantic hurricanes and tropical storms. Some events such as the Great Storm of 1987 occurred near the UK and caused damage in England.

Rare summer heatwaves of 28 °C+ occur on occasion, but sustained is uncommon, due to the high latitude and cool maritime climate. London is vulnerable to climate change, and there is increasing concern among hydrological experts that London households may run out of water before 2050.

Extremes

The highest temperature recorded in England (and in the United Kingdom) occurred on 19 July 2022 at Coningsby, Lincolnshire. The lowest temperature ever recorded in England occurred on 10 January 1982 in Newport, Shropshire. The highest temperature recorded in spring is which was recorded on 26 May 2026 at Kew Gardens, London.

{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible"

! colspan="7" |<big>Absolute temperature ranges for England</big>

! rowspan="2" |Month

! colspan="3" |Maximum temperatures

! colspan="3" |Minimum temperatures

!Temperature

!Location

!Date (day/year)

!Temperature

!Location

!Date (day/year)

!January

| style="text-align:right;" |||Eynsford, Kent

|27/2003

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Newport, Shropshire

|10/1982

! rowspan="2" |February

| rowspan="2" style="text-align:right;" ||| rowspan="2" |Kew Gardens, London

| rowspan="2" |26/2019

| rowspan="2" style="text-align:right;" |

|Scaleby, Cumbria

|19/1892

|Ketton, Rutland

|8/1895

!March

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Mepal, Cambridgeshire

|29/1968

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Houghall, County Durham

|4/1947

!April

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Camden Square

|16/1949

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Newton Rigg, Cumbria

|2/1917

!May

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Kew Gardens, London

|26/2026

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Lynford, Norfolk (4 May 1941)

|4/1941 and 11/1941

! rowspan="2" |June

| rowspan="2" style="text-align:right;" |

|Camden Square

|29/1957

| rowspan="2" style="text-align:right;" |

| rowspan="2" |Santon Downham, Norfolk (1 Jun 1962)

| rowspan="2" |1/1962 and 3/1962

|Southampton

|28/1976

!July

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Coningsby, Lincolnshire

|19/2022

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Kielder Castle, Northumberland

|17/1965

!August

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Brogdale, Faversham, Kent

|10/2003

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Kielder Castle

|14/1994

!September

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Bawtry and Hesley Hall, South Yorkshire

|2/1906

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Santon Downham and Grendon Underwood, Buckinghamshire

|30/1969

!October

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Gravesend, Kent

|1/2011

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Wark, Northumberland

|17/1993

!November

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Chelmsford, Clacton-on-Sea, Galleywood, Halstead and Writtle, Essex; Cambridge; Mildenhall, Suffolk; and Tottenham, London

|5/1938

| style="text-align:right;" |

|Scaleby, Cumbria

|30/1912

! rowspan="2" |December

| rowspan="2" style="text-align:right;" |

|RM Chivenor, Devon

|2/1985

| rowspan="2" style="text-align:right;" |

| rowspan="2" |Shawbury, Shropshire

| rowspan="2" |13/1981

|Penkridge, Staffordshire

|11/1994

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is warmer than Scotland throughout the year. Maximum temperatures are milder than in Wales from December to April, and milder than in England from December to February, but Northern Ireland is cooler during the rest of the year. Sunshine totals in every month are higher than those of Scotland, but lower than those of the rest of Great Britain. Northern Ireland is drier and has fewer rainy days than Scotland throughout the year, except in May, when it rains on more days. Northern Ireland is also drier than Wales in every month, yet it rains on more days. The rainiest month is January, when 17.8 days have more than of rain on average.

Wales

Wales has warmer temperatures throughout the year than Northern Ireland and Scotland and has milder winter minima than England, but cooler winter maxima than Northern Ireland. Wales is wetter throughout the year than Northern Ireland and England, but has fewer rainy days than Northern Ireland; meaning that rainfall tends to be more intense. Wales is also drier than Scotland in every month apart from May, June and December, and there are fewer days with rain than in Scotland. Sunshine totals throughout the year are more than that of Scotland and Northern Ireland, but less than that of neighbouring England. May is the sunniest month, averaging 186.8 hours. The south-western coast is the sunniest part of Wales, averaging over 1700 hours of sunshine annually, with Tenby, Pembrokeshire, its sunniest town. The dullest time of year is between November and January and the sunniest between May and August. The least sunny areas are the mountains, some parts of which average less than 1200 hours of sunshine annually. The prevailing wind is south-westerly. Coastal areas are the windiest, gales occur most often during winter, on average between 15 and 30 days each year, depending on location. Inland, gales average fewer than six days annually.

The country's wide geographic variations cause localised differences in sunshine, rainfall and temperature. Average annual coastal temperatures reach and in low lying inland areas, lower. It becomes cooler at higher altitudes; annual temperatures decrease on average approximately each of altitude. Consequently, the higher parts of Snowdonia experience average annual temperatures of . At low elevations, summers tend to be warm and sunny. Average maximum temperatures range between . Winters tend to be fairly wet, rainfall is excessive and the temperature usually stays above freezing. Spring and autumn feel quite similar and the temperatures tend to stay above – also the average annual daytime temperature. Rainfall patterns show significant variation. The further west, the higher the expected rainfall; up to 40 per cent more. extremes The southern half of England experiences the warmest spring temperatures of between .

The sunniest spring on record for the UK was in 2020 with 626.0 hours recorded on average across the UK. Conversely, the dullest spring on record for the UK was in 1983 with an average of 322.3 hours of sunshine across the UK.

The wettest spring on record for the UK was in 1947 with 332.4mm of precipitation falling on average across the UK. The driest spring on record for the UK was in 1893 with just 107.4mm of precipitation falling on average across the UK.

Summer

Summer lasts from June to August and is the warmest and usually the sunniest season. There can be wide local variations in rainfall totals due to localised thundershowers. These thundershowers mainly occur in southern, eastern, and central England and are less frequent and severe in the north and west. Greater London, Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk see the most thunderstorms during the summer. The South West, the Midlands, Northern England, Wales and Scotland get thunderstorms too, but they are generally less frequent and severe. Sometimes during the summer months, a weather pattern called the Spanish Plume forms over the country, bringing very hot weather. This can cause thunderstorms that can be severe in the South West and South East and get weaker as they go north.

Drought has been noted as a recurring feature.

The warmest summer on record for the UK was in 2018 with a mean temperature of 15.76 °C across the UK. Conversely, the coldest summer on record for the UK was in 1922 with a mean temperature of 12.24 °C. Other notable cool summers include 1920, 1954, 1956, 1962, 1965 and 1972. The season may be a little more unsettled; as cool polar air moves southwards, it can meet warm air from the tropics and produce an area of disturbance along which the country lies. This can combine with the warm ocean due to heating throughout the spring and summer, to produce some unsettled weather. In addition, the land may become colder than the ocean, resulting in significant amounts of condensation and rain-bearing clouds.

Atlantic depressions at this time can become intense, and winds of hurricane force (greater than ) can be recorded. Western areas, closest to the Atlantic, experience these severe conditions more often than eastern areas. Autumn, particularly the latter part, is often the stormiest time of the year. One particularly intense depression was the Great Storm of 1987. A very severe storm also affected the UK on 27 October 2002. At Mumbles Head near Swansea, a maximum sustained wind speed of over 123 km/h was recorded: equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane. The autumn of 2013 was also littered with severe storms, including the St. Jude's Storm on 28 October 2013.

Autumn can sometimes be a cold season—in recent years, very low temperatures and heavy snowfall have been recorded during November 1985, November 1993 and November 2010. There was a new record low of in Wales on 28 November 2010. At Northolt, in Greater London, the coldest temperature of the year 2016 was set on 30 November. Snow also fell rather widely across the UK on 28–29 October 2008, causing traffic problems where it settled on the M4. Even further south, low temperatures can be recorded, with temperatures well below freezing as far south as Heathrow Airport on 29–31 October 1997, with a lower temperature than any recorded at this station in March.

However, the United Kingdom sometimes experiences an "Indian summer", when temperatures, particularly by night, can be very mild and rarely fall below . Such events are aided by the surrounding Atlantic Ocean and seas being at their warmest, keeping the country in warm air, despite the relatively weak sun. Examples of this were in 1985, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2011 and 2016 when September saw above average temperatures which felt more like a continuation of summer than autumn. Autumns since 2000 have generally been very mild, with notable extremes of precipitation; the UK has seen some of its wettest and driest autumns since the millennium. 2011 and 2016 were notable as many areas of the country recorded their highest temperatures of the year in September and October (for example, at Hawarden on 1 October, at St. Athan on 2 October 2011 and the UK's highest temperature of 2016 on 13 September with at Gravesend). On 13 October 2018, temperatures reached at Donna Nook in Lincolnshire, the latest in the year such a high temperature had been recorded. Temperatures on the night of 12–13 October were also just under in London.

Coastal areas in the southern half of England have on average the warmest autumns, with mean temperatures of . Mountainous areas of Wales and northern England, and almost all of Scotland, experience mean temperatures between .

Towards the later part of the season the weather usually stabilises with less wind, less precipitation and lower temperatures. This change is particularly pronounced near the coasts, mainly because the Atlantic Ocean is often at its coldest at this time after being cooled throughout the autumn and the winter. The early part of winter however is often unsettled and stormy; often the wettest and windiest time of the year.

thumb|left|Snow cover on [[The Saddle in the Scottish Highlands]]

Snow falls intermittently and mainly affects northern and eastern areas, high ground in Wales and especially the mountains of Scotland, where there is often enough snow lying to permit skiing at some of the five Scottish ski resorts. These resorts usually operate between December and April, depending on the snowfall. Frequently in the mountains potent depressions may move in from the north in the form of "polar lows", introducing heavy snow and often blizzard-like conditions to parts of the United Kingdom, particularly Scotland. Blizzards have become rarer in the 21st century, although much of England was affected by one on 30 January 2003. During periods of light winds and high pressure, frost and fog can become a problem and can pose a major hazard to drivers.

Mean winter temperatures in the UK are most influenced by proximity to the sea. The coldest areas are the mountains of Wales and northern England, and inland areas of Scotland, averaging . Coastal areas, particularly those in the south and west, experience the mildest winters, on average . In zone 7, the average lowest temperature each year is between , and in zone 10, this figure is between .

Snow falls in the UK every year, but in small quantities. The UK can suffer extreme winters like 1684, 1740, 1795 (when London had its record lowest temperature of , 1947 and 1963. In 1962 it snowed on Boxing Day, and snow lasted in most areas until 6 March, with blizzards through February, which had significant and documented effects on the FA Cup - Wrexham were forced to play on sand for one tie. In recent times snow has generally become rarer, but the UK can still get heavy falls, such as in 1978–79, 1981–82, 1986–87 and 1990–91. The winter of 2008/09 produced the heaviest snowfall since 1991 between 1 and 3 February, and the winter of 2009–10 was even more severe, with many parts of the United Kingdom having the coldest and snowiest winters since 1978/79; temperatures plummeted to at Altnaharra, Sutherland – close to the recorded in Antarctica in the same period. The lowest temperature ever recorded in the UK was , on 10 January 1982 and 11 February 1895 in Braemar, Scotland and on 30 December 1995 in Altnaharra.

December 2015 was the wettest calendar month ever recorded in the United Kingdom, and January 2016 the second wettest. In these months, some northern and western parts had 2 to 4 times as much rainfall as normal. December 2015 was also the warmest December averaged over the whole UK, and the CET had the warmest December on record. (CET was , this is warmer than even any March). Most areas of southern England had average monthly temperatures 5–6 deg. C above normal. Some plants flowered that would normally do so in the spring.

The mildest winter on record for England was the winter of 2015–16 with a mean temperature for England of 6.47C. The coldest winter on record for England was the winter of 1962–63 with a mean temperature of .

Sunshine and cloud

thumb|right|A sunny spring day

The average total annual sunshine in the United Kingdom is 1339.7 hours, which is just under 30% of the maximum possible (The maximum hours of sunshine possible in one year is approximately 4476 hours). The hours of sunshine vary from 1200 to about 1580 hours per year, and since 1996 the UK has been and still is receiving above the 1981 to 2010 average hours of sunshine.

Generally the United Kingdom sees frequent cloudy skies due to its high latitude and oceanic controlled climate. The lowest sunshine hours are found in northern parts of the country and the highest in the southern parts and southern coast of England. The counties of Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex and Kent are the sunniest areas, which have annual average totals of around 1,750 hours of sunshine per year. Northern, western and mountainous areas are generally the cloudiest areas of the UK, with some mountainous areas receiving fewer than 1,000 hours of sunshine a year. while average hours of sunshine in summer range from 294–420 hours in northern Scotland and Northern Ireland, to 600–760 hours in southern English coastal counties.

The most sunshine recorded in one month was 383.9 hours at Eastbourne (East Sussex) in July 1911.

!rowspan=2|Month

!colspan=3|Most sunshine in one month (hours)

!hours

!Location and date

!January

|115 ||

Bournemouth, Dorset (Jan 1959)

!February

|167 ||

Jersey, Channel Islands (Feb 1891)

!March

|253 ||

Aberystwyth, Ceredigion (Mar 1929)

!April

|302 ||

Westbourne, Sussex (Apr 1893)

!May

|353||

Worthing, West Sussex (May 1909)

!June

|382 ||

Falmouth, Cornwall (Jun 1925)

!July

|384 ||

Eastbourne, East Sussex (Jul 1911)
Hastings, East Sussex (Jul 1911)

!August

|333 ||

Ilfracombe, Devon (Aug 1976)

!September

|281 ||

Jersey, Channel Islands (Sep 1959)

!October

|207 ||

Felixstowe, Suffolk (Oct 1921)

!November

|145 ||

Falmouth, Cornwall (Nov 1923)

!December

|120 ||

St Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands (Dec 2001)

Atlantic Ocean

One of the greatest influences on the climate of the UK is the Atlantic Ocean and especially the Gulf Stream, which carries warm water up from lower latitudes and modifies the high latitude air masses that pass across the UK. This thermohaline circulation has a powerful moderating and warming effect on the country's climate. This warm water current warms the climate to such a great extent that if the current did not exist then temperatures in winter would be about lower than they are today and similar to eastern Russia or Canada near the same latitude. The current allows England to have vineyards at the same latitude that Canada has polar bears. These warm ocean currents also bring substantial amounts of humidity which contributes to the notoriously wet climate that western parts of the UK experience.

Winds

The high latitude and proximity to a large ocean to the west means that the United Kingdom experiences strong winds. The prevailing wind is from the south-west, but it may blow from any direction for sustained periods of time. Winds are strongest near westerly facing coasts and exposed headlands.

Gales—which are defined as winds with speeds of —are strongly associated with the passage of deep depressions across the country. The Hebrides experience on average 35 days of gale a year (a day where there are gale-force winds) while inland areas in England and Wales receive fewer than 5 days of gale a year.

Barometric pressure plays a role in storm systems. For the United Kingdom, record figures for barometric pressure recordings are:

Highest – 1053.6mb (Aberdeen, 31 January 1902)

Lowest – 925.6mb (Ochtertyre, 26 January 1884)

Notably a low pressure storm system affected the UK with a central pressure of 914.0mb on 10 January 1993, however this figure is not recorded over the UK but out in the Atlantic, despite the system affecting the UK.

Rainfall

Rainfall amounts can vary greatly across the United Kingdom: generally the further west and the higher the elevation, the greater the rainfall. The mountains of Wales, Scotland, the Pennines in Northern England and the moors of South West England are the wettest parts of the country, and in some of these places as much as of rain can fall annually, making these locations some of the wettest in Europe. The wettest spot in the United Kingdom is Crib Goch, in Snowdonia, which averaged rain over a 30 year period. Most rainfall in the United Kingdom comes from North Atlantic depressions which roll into the country throughout the year from the west or southwest and are particularly frequent and intense in the autumn and winter. They can on occasions bring prolonged periods of heavy rain, and flooding is quite common.

Parts of England are dry in global terms, which is contrary to the stereotypical view—London receives just below per annum, which is less than Rome, Sydney, or New York City. In East Anglia it typically rains on about 113 days per year. Most of the south, south-east and East Anglia receive less than of rain per year. however England has had warmer spells of 31 days which did not coincide with a calendar month—in 1976 and 1995. The impact of droughts is increased because the driest parts of England also have the highest population density, and therefore the highest water consumption. The drought in 2006 was eased when in the period from October 2006 to January 2007, which had well above average rainfall.

December 2015 was the wettest month ever recorded in the United Kingdom. The average rainfall for the month was almost doubled.

Extremes

{|class=wikitable

!colspan=7|<big>UK daily rainfall extremes by month</big>

!rowspan=2|Month

!colspan=3|Most rainfall in 24 hours

!mm

!in

!Location and date

!January

| ||

Sloy, Argyll and Bute (17 Jan 1974)

!February

| ||

Ben Nevis, Highland (6 Feb 1894)

!March

| ||

Glen Etive, Highland (26 Mar 1968)

!April

| ||

Seathwaite, Cumbria (22 Apr 1970)

!May

| ||

Seathwaite, Cumbria (8 May 1884)

!June

| ||

Bruton, Somerset (28 Jun 1917)

!July

| ||

Martinstown, Dorset (18 Jul 1955)

!August

| ||

East Wretham, Norfolk (16 Aug 2020)

!September

| ||

West Stourmouth, Kent (20 Sep 1973)

!October

| ||

Kinlochquoich, Highland (11 Oct 1916)

!November

| ||

Seathwaite, Cumbria (19 Nov 2009)

!December

| ||

Thirlmere, Cumbria (5 Dec 2015)

Temperature

thumb|[[Cambridge University Botanic Garden|Cambridge Botanic Garden Weather Station where a then-record high of was recorded]]

Generally, the United Kingdom has cool to mild winters and warm to hot summers with moderate variation in temperature throughout the year. In England the average annual temperature varies from in the north to in the south, but over the higher ground this can be several degrees lower. This is a particularly notable event in northern Scotland, mainly Aberdeenshire, where these high temperatures can occur in midwinter when the sun only reaches about 10° above the horizon.

July is on average the warmest month, and the highest temperatures tend to occur away from the Atlantic in southern, eastern and central England, where summer temperatures can rise above .

{|class=wikitable

!colspan=7|<big>Absolute temperature ranges</big>

!rowspan=2|Country

!colspan=3|Maximum temperatures

!colspan=3|Minimum temperatures

!°C

!°F

!Location and date

!°C

!°F

!Location and date

!England

| ||

Coningsby, Lincolnshire on 19 July 2022

|||

Edgmond, near Newport, Shropshire on 10 January 1982

!Wales

| ||

Hawarden, Flintshire on 18 July 2022

|||

Rhayader, Radnorshire on 21 January 1940

!Scotland

|||

Floors Castle (Kelso), Scottish Borders on 19 July 2022

|||

Braemar, Aberdeenshire on 11 February 1895 and 10 January 1982
Altnaharra, Sutherland on 30 December 1995

!Northern Ireland

| ||

Castlederg, County Tyrone on 21 July 2021

| ||

Castlederg, County Tyrone on 23 December 2010

Severe weather

The United Kingdom is not particularly noted for extreme weather, as the region's cool, oceanic climate is opposed to convective storms. However, events such as floods and drought may be experienced. The summer of 1976 or 2018, for example, experienced temperatures as high as , and it was so dry the country suffered drought and water shortages.

Extended periods of extreme weather, such as the droughts of 1975–1976, summer 2006, and spring 2012, the long hot summers of 1911, 1976, 2003, 2006 and 2018, and the winters of 1946–1947, 1962–1963, 2009–2010, and 2010–2011 are often caused by blocking anticyclones which can persist for several days, weeks, or even months. In winter they can bring long periods of cold dry weather and in summer long periods of hot dry weather.

thumb|right|Hurricane Gordon's path

There have also been occurrences of severe flash floods caused by intense rainfall; the most severe was the Lynmouth disaster of 1952 in which 34 people died and 38 houses and buildings were completely destroyed. In the summer of 2004, a severe flash flood devastated the town of Boscastle in Cornwall. However, the worst floods in the United Kingdom in modern times occurred in the North Sea flood of 1953. A powerful storm from the Atlantic moved around Scotland and down the east coast of England. As it moved south it produced a storm surge which was magnified as the North Sea became narrower further south. By the time the storm affected south-east England and the Netherlands, the surge had reached the height of . Over 300 people were killed by the floods in eastern England.

Thunderstorms in general are not common in the U.K. The areas that see the most occur in the southern part of England, while areas in the north and west see very few thunderstorms annually. In London, thunderstorms occur on average 14–19 days a year, while in most of Northern Ireland and the west of Scotland thunderstorms occur on around 3 days a year. The counties that see the most storms are Kent, the eastern part of Surrey, Sussex, Greater London, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and to a lesser extent Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.

Strong winds occur mainly in the autumn and winter months associated with low pressure systems and Scotland experiences hurricane-force winds in most winters. The Gale of January 1976, Great Storm of 1987 (23 fatalities) and the Burns' Day storm of 1990 (97 fatalities) are particularly severe examples; Scotland saw winds of 142 mph during Cyclone Xaver in 2013.

The most rain recorded to fall on a single day was 279 mm at Martinstown (Dorset) on 18 July 1955, Heavy rain also fell between 20 and 25 June in 2007; some areas experienced a month's rainfall in one day. Four people died in the flooding and over £1.5 billion of damage to businesses and properties was caused.

Tropical cyclones do not affect the UK due to the high latitude, cold ocean waters, and distance from source regions of tropical storms. so any tropical cyclone that does come anywhere near the UK has said to have undergone a process called extratropical transition. This now means it is an extratropical cyclone, which the UK frequently experiences. The Great Storm of 1987 was a very deep depression which formed in the Bay of Biscay, which also contained the remnants of Hurricane Floyd. Hurricane Lili of 1996 and Hurricane Gordon of 2006 both crossed the UK as strong extratropical cyclones with tropical hurricane-force winds, causing transport closures, power-cuts and flooding in Northern Ireland, Scotland and South West England. In 2011, the remnants of Hurricane Katia passed over northwestern Scotland with winds near .

Tornadoes

The United Kingdom has at least 33 tornadoes per year, more than any other country in the world relative to its land area. Though these tornadoes are much weaker than in areas of the United States, there is a significant number of these tornadoes annually. Dr. Ted Fujita (inventor of the Fujita scale), an American meteorologist, was the first to recognise the UK as the top site for tornadoes in 1973. Although most tornadoes are weak, there are occasional destructive events, for example, the 2005 Birmingham tornado and the 2006 London tornado, registering IF3 and F2 on the International Fujita scale and Fujita scale respectively. both caused significant damage and injury. The largest ever recorded was thought to have been an F4, again in London in 1091. The deadliest known tornado was an F3 which occurred on 27 October 1913 in south Wales.

The UK also holds the title for the largest known tornado outbreak outside of the United States. On 23 November 1981, 105 tornadoes were spawned by a cold front in the space of 5.25 hours. Excepting Derbyshire, every county in a triangular area from Gwynedd to Humberside to Essex was hit by at least one tornado, while Norfolk was hit by at least 13. Very fortunately most tornadoes were short-lived and also weak (the strongest was around T5 on the TORRO Tornado Scale) and no deaths occurred.

Southern England between the Isle of Wight and Beachy Head has been recognised as a 'hotspot' for tornadoes and waterspouts. The area (known as 'The Isle of Wight and South Coast Anomaly') has seen significant activity and is thought to be due to the shedding of vortices, downwind of the Isle of Wight, under certain weather conditions.

As with many parts of the world, over the last century the United Kingdom has reported a warming trend in temperatures. While some of this may be due to a recovery from the cooler period of climate mid 20th century (particularly the 1960s) the last 20 years has nonetheless seen an unprecedented level of warm weather. In July 2019, BBC reported that records from the Met Office show that the 10 warmest years in the UK have occurred since 2002, with 2014 being the warmest. In the same period, the coolest year has been 2010; however, this still only ranks 22nd on the overall list of coolest years on record. In January 2024, provisional data released by the Met Office report that 2023 was the second hottest year on record, surpassing 2014. This puts it just behind 2022, which recorded an average temperature of only higher. However, for both Wales and Northern Ireland, 2023 was their hottest year on record.

The averages shown below have been calculated using month CET data from 1659, using periods of 30 years as the WMO advises.

|date=July 2019