How climate crisis made this UK summer feel like a letdown

There has been a widespread feeling that this summer was a big letdown, unusually cool and even cold at times. But was it really so bad? There were some hot spells, and on 12 August temperatures peaked at 34.8C in Cambridge, which was remarkably hot.

British summers in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s were far more likely to be thoroughly cool. And even the historic long hot summer of 1976 had only one occasion when 34.8C was exceeded, with a high of 35.9C on 3 July in Cheltenham, which set a new record at the time for the UK’s highest temperature.

The difference now is that extreme heat is taken for granted, highlighted by the UK’s latest record highest temperature of 40.3C on 19 July 2022. Cool spells have become more unusual, and although this July was largely written off as disappointing, it was actually warmer than the average July temperatures over the decades from 1961 to 1990.

What has changed is our perceptions as hot summers have become normalised with the growing impact of the climate crisis.