The climate-fuelled extreme temperatures that gripped the UK this summer broke records at more than half of the longest-working weather stations, according to Met Office data.
Fifty-seven of the 109 longest-working stations recorded temperatures that broke past records and one, in Lyneham, Wiltshire, matched its previous record during the extreme heat this summer.
All but one of those records were broken in July, when temperatures surpassed 40C for the first time on record in the UK, with the mercury reaching 40.3C in Coningsby, Lincolnshire on the 19th.
The data, first reported on by the BBC, found that the 56 long-standing stations that broke their records this summer did so by more than 2C on average. This is unusual as temperature records are usually broken by small margins.
The record at one weather station in West Yorkshire was broken by 6.3C – from 33.5C in 1990 to 39.8C in July.
Mark McCarthy, head of the Met Office National Climate Information Centre, said the extreme temperatures of 40C recorded this summer are a “real indication of how our climate is changing”.
“What was really notable about this heatwave was the northerly extent of extreme temperatures, and by how much previous records were broken,” he said.
More than 20 of the longest-working stations where records were broken this summer were in northerly parts of the UK including Scotland, Northern Ireland, North Wales and Northern England.
The data looks at weather stations that have been in action for at least 50 years. The 40.3C recorded in Coningsby in Lincolnshire is not included in the data because it hasn’t been operating for that long, according to the Met Office.
This summer was the joint warmest on record for England, alongside 2018, while four out of the five hottest summers in the UK have all been since 2003.
The record-breaking heat was made at least 10 times more likely due to global heating, according to scientists.
More than 3,000 excess deaths were recorded in England and Wales during five “heat periods” between June and August this year, with those aged 65 and over particularly impacted.
An elephant is cooled down by a keeper at Chester Zoo during the heatwave in August.
