![Cambridge Botanic Garden Weather Station from the West](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Cambridge_Botanic_Garden_Weather_Station_from_the_West.jpg)
The United Kingdom weather records show the most
extreme weather
Extreme weather or extreme climate events includes unexpected, unusual, severe, or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Often, extreme events are based on a locat ...
ever recorded in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, such as temperature, wind speed, and rainfall records. Reliable temperature records for the whole of the United Kingdom go back to about 1880.
Records
Daily records unless otherwise specified are from 0900-2100 UTC. As of 20 Dec 2022, the records, as recorded by the
Met Office
The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelope E ...
, are:
Highest temperature by country
Earlier records for England/UK since 1911 are shown with a * in the "Top 10 hottest days" table below.
Top 10 hottest days
Starred entries signify the then-highest temperature recorded up to that date, until surpassed by the next starred date above.
Lowest temperature by nation
Rainfall
Sunshine
Wind speed
Shetland
Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.
The islands lie about to the no ...
holds the unofficial British record for wind speed. A gust of was reported on 1 January 1992. An earlier gust in 1962 was recorded at 177 mph (285 km/h), both at
RAF Saxa Vord
Remote Radar Head Saxa Vord or RRH Saxa Vord (aka RAF Saxa Vord), is a Royal Air Force radar station located on the island of Unst, the most northern of the Shetland Islands in Scotland. As of July 2019 it is once more a fully operational radar ...
. However, it is expected that higher gusts than those reported would have been achieved as during both storms the measuring equipment was destroyed by the extreme weather.
A wind gust of was recorded at
Cairn Gorm
Cairn Gorm ( gd, An CĂ rn Gorm) is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. It is part of the Cairngorms range and wider Grampian Mountains. With a summit elevation of above sea level, Cairn Gorm is classed as a Munro and is the seventh-hi ...
on 19 December 2008 but was discovered too late to be verified by the
Met Office
The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelope E ...
.
Snowfall
Atmospheric pressure
References
{{Weather events in the United Kingdom
Climate of the United Kingdom
Lists of weather records