Climate we had in 20th Century 'has now gone' - Met Office

The climate that Britain experienced throughout the 20th century has now been definitively lost, according to the Met Office, in a stark assessment that underscores the pace at which global heating is reshaping the country's weather patterns.

In its annual State of the UK Climate report, the Met Office said that the period since 2000 has been warmer, wetter and sunnier than any comparable period in the historical record. The report confirms that the UK's average temperature has risen by approximately 1.2°C since the pre-industrial era, with the warming accelerating in recent decades.

The consequences are visible in the data. The ten warmest years in the UK's recorded history have all occurred since 2002. Summers are becoming hotter and drier on average, while winters are becoming warmer and wetter — a pattern that increases the risk of both drought and flooding in different parts of the year. The report also notes a significant increase in the frequency of extreme rainfall events, which have become roughly 30 percent more common than they were in the mid-20th century.

Professor Liz Bentley, the Met Office's chief scientist, said the report should put to rest any lingering doubts about whether the UK's climate had fundamentally changed. "The climate we had in the 20th century has now gone," she said. "We are living in a new climate, and we need to adapt our infrastructure, our housing, our farming and our emergency planning to reflect that reality."

The report comes as the government faces increasing pressure to strengthen its climate adaptation programme, which independent assessors have described as inadequate to meet the scale of the challenge.