Met Office says UK climate has shifted with extreme weather becoming normal
The Met Office has reported that the UK's climate has fundamentally shifted, with extreme heat and weather events becoming the new normal. The report also states that 2025 was the hottest year on record.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
The UK's climate has fundamentally shifted, with extreme weather becoming the new normal, according to a stark new report from the Met Office. The report, released on Wednesday, declares that the climate of the 20th century has now gone and that what used to be considered extreme is increasingly routine. It warns that the country's infrastructure, housing, agriculture and health systems are all based on a climate that no longer exists.
2025 was the hottest year on record in nearly 150 years of data, the Met Office said. Four of the last five years rank among the five hottest ever recorded. In the warmest areas of the UK, the average hottest day of the year is now 4.5 degrees Celsius warmer than it was in the 30-year period up to 1990. The report's lead author said climate change is no longer a distant threat: "For many people, climate change has perhaps previously seen something that's talked about scientists, but they maybe don't necessarily expect to see the impacts so much in their day-to-day lives. I think that is very much increasingly, people are experiencing climate change and I think this is because the way we experience this is through these extremes."
The report illustrates the shift with maps showing how climatic zones have moved northwards. The kind of climate that London experienced in the three decades to 1990 is now the kind of climate experienced in the north of England. Meanwhile, the climate that was typical of western France is now found in southern England. These changes have real-world consequences. Sea levels are rising more quickly than in previous decades, and the Thames Barrier, the country's most famous flood defence, may not be large enough to protect against future North Sea floods.
Scientists are also concerned about a potential slowdown in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the system of ocean currents that brings warm water from the tropics past the UK, keeping its climate milder than its latitude would suggest. As Greenland's ice melts, fresh water dilutes the salty, heavy water that normally sinks near Greenland, driving the current. If the current slows significantly, less warm water would reach the UK, potentially leading to colder winters and more dramatic temperature extremes. The report stresses that without deep and rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, the UK's climate will continue to change.
On screen
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Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, mapped by channel. Ordered by how many channels carried each claim.
| Claim | BBC NEWS | BBC One |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 was the hottest year on record. | ||
| The climate of the last century has gone, and British infrastructure is based on a climate that no longer exists. | ||
| The hottest day of the year has increased by 4.5 degrees Celsius compared to the 30-year period up to 1990. | ||
| Four out of the last five years were among the five hottest years on record. | · | |
| Sea levels are rising more quickly over recent decades, and the Thames Barrier will not be big enough to keep out future North Sea floods. | · |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
This national bulletin gave a concise summary of the Met Office report, focusing on the headline finding that the climate of the 20th century has gone and that extreme heat is now normal. It included a direct quote from the lead author about people experiencing climate change in daily life, but quickly moved on to other unrelated stories (Hillsborough, Cuba blackout), giving the climate story less depth than the regional BBC One West coverage.
- “the UK's climate of the 20th century has now gone, according to experts who say once extreme conditions are increasingly seen as normal.”
- “the report's lead author says it shows climate change is upon us right now.”
This regional channel provided a much more detailed and visually driven explanation of the Met Office report. It used charts to show how climatic zones have shifted northwards, explained the implications for sea level rise and the Thames Barrier, and included a lengthy segment on the potential slowdown of the Atlantic current and its possible effects on UK winters. The tone was authoritative and concerned, with climate editor Justin Rowlatt delivering the analysis. The report was interwoven with other news (football, politics), but the climate story received substantial airtime.
- “The climate of the 20th century has gone and we have now entered a new climate era of Increasingly hotter and more extreme weather.”
- “every year is adding to this body of evidence that what we are seeing is unprecedented and historic changes in our climate”
- “the fear is if the current slows significantly it will mean less warm water flowing up around the UK and that will mean our winters could be colder, temperature extremes more dramatic.”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.