A series of heatwaves leads Britain to record its hottest summer

Britain's summer has been the hottest on record, according to provisional data from the national weather serviceByThe Associated PressSeptember 1, 2026, 10:55 AMLONDON -- Britain's sweltering summer of successive heatwaves was the hottest on record, the national weather service said Tuesday.The season, marked by extreme heat, little rainfall, destructive wildfires, and water restrictions, snapped the record set only a year earlier, the Met Office said, citing provisional data recorded since 1884. The mean average temperature of 16.5 Celsius (61.7 Fahrenheit) surpassed the 16.1 C (61 F) from 2025. Last year's record beat the 15.7 C (60.2 F) mark set in 2018.“These records are now breaking with increasing frequency, reflecting the influence of human-induced climate change,” said Amy Doherty, head of the National Climate Information Center. “Particularly notable is how much we’ve exceeded the previous summer mean temperature record, set just last year.”The top five hottest summers have all occurred since 2003.The Met calculated that human-caused climate change had made such a hot summer 130 times more likely. Without human greenhouse gas emissions, a summer that hot would occur once i...