The Met Office has confirmed that 2022 was the UK's warmest year on record, with the annual average temperature exceeding 10 degrees C for the first time.
The mean temperature for the year was 10.03C, beating the previous record of 9.88C, which was set in 2014. The fact that the UK's top ten warmest years have all occurred since 2003 is a clear signal that human-induced global warming is already affecting the UK's climate.
Temperatures rose above 40C for the first time during the summer heatwave of 2022, with 40.3C recorded at Coningsby in Lincolnshire on 19 July. By 2100, the Met Office expects that the UK could see similar temperatures occurring every three to four years.
Joining the UK for record setting, France, Spain and Ireland have all declared 2022 their hottest year since records began.
Meanwhile, national records for the highest ever January temperatures were already been broken in the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Denmark, Belarus and Lichtenstein, even as 2023 got underway. Switzerland hit 20C and ski resorts across the Alps have been affected by a lack of snow.
In Bilbao, Spain, the temperature reached 25.1C on 1 January 2023, which is over 10C above the average for the time of year, Meanwhile, Belarus recorded 16.4C, which is 4.5C above the previous January record.