UK summer 2026 at a glance

☀️ Temperature

Summer temperatures across the UK were above average, driven by repeated heatwaves.

The average daily maximum temperature was 21.3°C—2.4°C above the 1991–2020 summer average.

Southern England and Wales experienced particularly high temperatures, while conditions were closer to normal across Scotland and Northern Ireland.

🌧️ Rainfall

Summer 2026 was drier than average across most of the UK.

An average of 195mm of rain fell nationwide, around 23% below the 1991–2020 summer average.

North-western Scotland was the main exception, recording more summer rain than usual. Droughts were declared across much of the rest of the UK.

Why was summer 2026 so hot and dry?

High-pressure weather systems remained over the UK for much of the summer, bringing clear skies and warm, dry conditions to many parts of the country.

Global warming—mainly caused by the burning of fossil fuels—is raising average temperatures in the UK. This means warm spells can reach higher temperatures than similar weather patterns in the past.

The Met Office estimates that human-caused climate change made this summer’s average temperature about 130 times more likely.

Rising temperatures also cause vegetation and soils to dry out more quickly, which can worsen the effects of low rainfall. UK summers are expected to become drier on average as a result of climate change, although heavy rain may fall in more intense bursts.

Weather patterns vary from year to year, so not every summer will be as hot or dry as 2026. However, scientists warn that average temperatures will continue to rise while greenhouse gas emissions increase.

About the data

Where does the data come from?

The postcode lookup uses the HadUK Grid dataset, produced by the Met Office Hadley Centre. It is one of the main datasets used by scientists to monitor and research the UK’s changing climate.

HadUK Grid provides temperature and rainfall estimates across a uniform grid covering the UK landmass. It does not include the Channel Islands. Each value represents the estimated conditions at the centre of a 1km by 1km grid box—the most detailed publicly available climate dataset for the UK.

The estimates are produced using observations from land-based weather stations, alongside factors such as altitude, terrain and distance from the coast. These methods help fill gaps between weather stations.

The 2026 figures are provisional because some observations are delayed. Values may change slightly as more data becomes available. Historical comparisons use the 30-year period from 1991–2020, the standard reference period used by the World Meteorological Organization.

What does “your area” mean?

Every active UK postcode is matched to its nearest 1km by 1km grid cell in the HadUK dataset.

The results for your location show the mean average of that grid cell and nearby grid cells. For most locations, this represents an area measuring approximately 5km square and centred on the postcode.

Near irregular coastlines and on small islands, grid cells are selected to match the shape of the coastline or island. No selected grid cell is more than 7km from the location.

This approach helps avoid sharp changes between neighbouring locations caused by uncertainty in the data, while still capturing local weather conditions across the UK’s varied geography.

What does the weather data represent?

The average temperature is the mean temperature across the selected grid cells for the month or season.

The maximum temperature is the mean of the daily maximum temperatures recorded across the selected grid cells. The minimum temperature is calculated in the same way using daily minimum temperatures.

Rainfall is the total amount recorded during the month or season, averaged across the selected grid cells.

To calculate the number of days above the heatwave threshold, the daily maximum temperature for each grid cell is averaged with its nearest grid cells. The result is then compared with the Met Office’s heatwave thresholds, based on the centre of the grid cell.

The threshold may be approximate if a postcode is close to a county boundary. The figure is also different from the number of days spent in an official heatwave, which requires the threshold to be met or exceeded for at least three consecutive days.