The Met Office compared two 30-year periods (1961-1990 and 1991-2020) and found average increases of 0.8°C in temperature, 7.3% in rainfall and 5.6% in sunshine.
Differing temperature rises
Temperature rise has been greatest across parts of central and eastern England where temperatures have increased by more than 1°C in some locations including Bedfordshire and Leicestershire.
Further north in Scotland and Northern Ireland temperatures rises have been closer to 0.7°C.
Other findings
- Annual average rainfall has increased by more than 10% between the two periods across parts of south-west England and Wales. South Yorkshire has seen the smallest rise by volume with a rise of just over 14mm per year.
- The number of days with 1mm or more of rain a year has increased by an average of 5.6 days.
- 2021 saw the wettest May on record in Wales, 171% of average rainfall overall. In comparison, it was the fourth wettest for the UK overall.
- Wales saw little sunshine in August, ranking within the ten dullest Augusts historically.
- The number of days of air frost (when the air temperature drops below 0°C) has reduced on average by 11.1 days. Many areas have seen a fall by 14 days per year, including Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Rutland and Staffordshire.
How did the UK's weather compare in 2021?
There were less weather records broken during 2021 than in 2020, but the Met Office's review of the year still contains some interesting trends.
UK temperature and sunshine levels were fairly close to the long-term average and rainfall slightly below. But what does ‘average’ mean? Compared to mean temperatures from 1991 to 2020, our climate is warming, which means it is close to 1°C warmer than the earlier 1961-1990 baseline.
New temperature records for the UK were set as the year ended. 16.5 C was reached at Bala on 31 December 2021 which is a New Year’s Eve record for the UK and Wales.
- Read more about this temperature record on the Met Office.
- Visit the Met Office website to see the statistics for each quarter of 2021 and the regional variation within the UK.
Benchmarks
Measurement of climate against 30-year ‘averaging’ periods is in line with World Meteorological Organisation. They are benchmarks against which weather and climate records can be compared to provide context and a baseline for future climate projections.
Average temperatures
The head of the Met Office National Climate Information Centre, Dr Mark McCarthy, said: “The average temperature between 1991-2020 in Hull has been warmer on average than Heathrow was during the previous climate averaging period 1961-1990.
"So average temperatures previously limited to London and parts of the far south of England are now experienced as much as 250 km (155 miles) further north.”