Brits could be set to swelter this summer with Met Office forecasters claiming the country could see rocketing temperatures due in part to the “background warming of the UK climate”
The Met Office has warned Brits will be twice as likely to experience a scorching heatwave this summer.
Forecasters also warned about an increased risk of heatwaves as we enter meteorological summer. The prediction comes after the country experienced its sunniest spring on record with an estimated 630 hours of sunshine recorded across the country between March 1 and May 27, marking it as one of the “driest” for more than a century. On May 31, temperatures surged to 8C higher than the average for this time of year. The rocketing temperatures could be a sign of the scorcher to come in the summer.
The Met Office said in its three-month outlook that the odds of a scorcher summer are higher than usual and bring an increased risk of heatwaves and the heat-related impacts that come along with it. The Met office said the increased likelihood of a hot summer is “largely being driven by the background warming of the UK climate.”
The forecast said there is a 2.3 times normal chance the summer will be hotter than average. It added there was a 45 per cent likelihood of this and that there was a 30 per cent chance it would be wetter than average.
This meteorological summer, which kicked off on June 1 and ends on August 31, could see average temperatures across the UK ranging from between 10 to 17C with the south east of England experiencing higher averages of 16 to 17C.
The three-month outlook suggested that Brits could wind speeds across the UK will remain on the average mark. While the latest outlook offers a long-range forecast, it does not offer any individual daily predictions.
A Met Office spokesperson said: “While the current three-month outlook shows an increased chance of a hot summer, the temperature signals for this summer are similar to those for recent years and consistent with our warming climate.
“The increased chance of hotter than average temperatures is not a guarantee of prolonged hot weather or heatwaves, but it does mean that heatwave conditions could be reached at times.”
The Met Office added: “However, it’s important to bear in mind that an increased chance of hot conditions could also reflect a mix of hot and cool days, warm nights, or less extreme levels of warmth rather than continual heatwave conditions specifically.”
The Met Office has a clear definition for a heatwave, describing it as “an extended period of hot weather relative to the expected conditions of the area at the time of year, which may be accompanied by high humidity.” A region typically needs three days of daily maximum temperatures to reach or go beyond the heatwave temperature.
“Heatwaves are most common in summer when high pressure develops across an area,” the Met Office said in its heatwave explainer. “High pressure systems are slow moving and can persist over an area for a prolonged period of time, such as days or weeks. They can occur in the UK due to the location of the jet stream, which is usually to the north of the UK in the summer. This can allow high pressure to develop over the UK resulting in persistent dry and settled weather.”
