England didn’t just get hot. It melted.
According to provisional data from the Met Office, last month stands as the warmest June in English history. For the UK as a whole it ranks second. But second feels hollow when the thermometer barely dips below a fever pitch.
Mean temperatures hit 17.1°C. That’s nearly three degrees above average. And it wasn’t just the midday sun beating down. It was the nights. Frequent tropical nights, where temperatures refuse to fall below 20°C, kept the heat rolling over everyone. Sleeping became an endurance sport.
The numbers aren’t rounding errors. They are records.
Then came the peak. On Friday 26 June, the mercury at Lingwood, Norfolk surged to 37.7°C. Just over 100 degrees.
The previous record was 35.6°C. Set back in 1957. Equalled in 1976 during a heatwave everyone still talks about like a ghost story. We smashed it.
It wasn’t just warm. It was dangerous. A rare red extreme heat warning blanketed parts of England and Wales. Three days in a row in eastern England. An unprecedented streak.
Wales didn’t play small either. Cardiff saw 35.9°C on June 25. Their hottest day ever recorded. Shattering the old mark of 33.9°C. Northern Ireland matched their June high, clocking 30.8°C in Castlederg.
Why does it matter? Because comfort is eroding. The seasons are shifting under our feet while we try to remember how to stay cool.
