Fuelled by unusually warm ocean waters in the tropical Pacific, El Niño conditions are developing and are set to influence global temperature and rainfall patterns, increasing the risk of extreme weather over the coming months, according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
Global average temperatures are likely to continue at or near record levels in the next five years, with Arctic temperature anomalies expected to continue to be higher than the global mean, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), produced by the UK’s Met Office. The Global Annual-to-Decadal Update also takes a look at the observed climate over the past five years and gives regional predictions for temperatures and precipitation over the next five years.
Every December, the World Weather Attribution (WWA) asks: was it a bad year for extreme weather? And each year, the answer becomes more unequivocal: yes. Fossil fuel emissions continue to rise, driving global temperatures upward and fuelling increasingly destructive climate extremes across every continent. Although 2025 was slightly cooler than 2024 globally, it was still far hotter than almost any other year on record and the impacts of this hotness were unmistakable.
Record-breaking and extreme weather has become increasingly commonplace in the UK, says the Met Office. Baselines are shifting, records are becoming more frequent and temperature and rainfall extremes are becoming the norm. The latest 'State of the UK Climate report', published by Wiley in the Royal Meteorological Society’s ‘International Journal of Climatology’, provides insight into the UK’s changing climate.
Climate change is making extreme weather in the UK more likely and more extreme. This looks like heatwaves, heavy rainfall and conditions that enable wildfires. The UK is not appropriately prepared for this.