The mild autumn has kept 2022 on track to be the UK’s hottest year on record, the Met Office has said. The UK would need a December of near-record cold weather to stop this year ending up as the warmest in records going back to 1884, the meteorologists said.
Provisional figures show autumn 2022 – September, October and November – was the third warmest on record for the UK, with an average temperature of 11.1C which is topped only by 2011 and 2006 in the record. November has continued 2022’s run of every month being warmer than average, and the first 11 months of the year are the hottest on record for the UK.
Mike Kendon of the National Climate Information Centre said: “Although it’s too early to guarantee that 2022 will be the UK’s warmest year, the first 11 months have set up the distinct possibility of a record-breaking warm year, with only a very cold December able to potentially influence where the year will eventually sit in the record books.
