UK’s extra heat revealed with live temperature tool

As British summer gets underway, a new online tool is providing live information to answer the question – is today hotter or colder than normal?

The website, IsTheUKHotRightNow.com, compares live temperature data to 30-year averages, showing Britons exactly how much hotter or cooler the UK is than normal, as British meteorological summer begins in June.

The tool shows that the United Kingdom was 2.5°C hotter than average, at 10am BST on Friday, 30 May – plus showing local conditions across the UK. The site’s interactive map allows users to check temperature variations in their local area hour by hour. Heathrow was 5.7°C hotter than average on Friday morning.

Professor Ed Hawkins, University of Reading, was involved in developing the new site. He said: "As we enter the summer in the UK, we are following on from an unusually sunny and warm spring. On hot summer days, our new tool will help people understand just how unusual these conditions are compared to historical norms, and to compare conditions on heatwave days to the wider context of the whole season.

“We hope that by being more aware of temperature extremes, people will be better prepared to deal with heatwaves and keep themselves safe, while also highlighting the reality of our changing climate."

The website makes use of the colours of Professor Ed Hawkins' climate stripes graphics to clearly show how much warmer or cooler a particular location is than normal. Blue shades indicate a cooler-than-average temperature, and red shades indicate warmer-than-average temperatures. A range of additional infographics on the site help users understand temperature variations where they live.

Warm, sunny spring

Early climate statistics from the Reading University Atmospheric Observatory, analysed by University of Reading meteorologist Dr Stephen Burt, show the mean temperature for meteorological spring (March-April-May) has been 10.9°C. This is a full 1.0°C above average, but is cooler than the record warm spring set in 2024.

Persistent high pressure conditions led to frequent clear skies, which resulted in warmer days and colder nights, meaning that the mean daily maximum temperature of 16.8 °C was 2.5 °C above normal. This is set to be the highest value for average maximum daily temperatures for any spring in the University’s weather records, which date back to 1908.

Between 1 March and 27 May, 639.5 hours of sunshine were recorded at Reading, an average of 7.2 hours per day, and 39% more sunshine than is expected across the period. This figure stands second only to spring 2020, when 766.5 hours of sunlight were recorded.

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