UK and Belgium chalk up hottest summers on record
Temperatures at the official national reference station in Uccle, outside Brussels, averaged 20.3 C — 2.4 C above the mean of recent decades — the Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI) said Tuesday.
Parents and children part of UK climate group 'Mothers Rise Up' take part in a demonstration to highlight the the impact of record breaking heat on children due to climate change, near Downing Street in central London on September 1, 2026. (Photo by AFP)
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LONDON — Britain and Belgium both recorded their hottest ever summers, the two countries' weather agencies announced Tuesday, the latest temperature records to be smashed in Europe this year.
In the UK, it was the second consecutive year that the average summer temperature broke the previous high, with 2026 seeing successive heatwaves and minimal rainfall, prompting widespread drought conditions.
Belgium also experienced several heatwaves since June and was hit by its largest wildfire in a century in August as it chalked up its hottest summer.
Temperatures at the official national reference station in Uccle, outside Brussels, averaged 20.3 C — 2.4 C above the mean of recent decades — the Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI) said Tuesday.
"This represents an all-time record (based on observations dating back to 1833) and marks the first time this average has exceeded 20 C," it added.
Scientists warn that climate change is making extreme weather events more intense and resulting in heat records tumbling with increasing frequency.
All-time temperature records were also broken in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary earlier in the season.
Exceptional summer heatwaves have been linked with thousands of excess deaths across Europe.
Spain registered more than 5,000 heat-related deaths from June to August, data from a public health institute also showed on Tuesday, a record since the start of its statistics in 2015.
May and June heatwaves led to an estimated 2,877 excess deaths in England, according to the UK's Health Security Agency, almost double the tally of the whole of the summer in 2025.
'Human-induced'
In its announcement Tuesday, Britain's Met Office said, "Summer 2026 is provisionally the UK's warmest summer on record, with the season's mean temperature made around 130 times more likely due to human-induced climate change".
The UK measured an average temperature of 16.5C between June and August, breaking the previous record of 16.1C set in 2025.
The extreme weather has left three-quarters of England and all of Wales officially in drought, as rainfall was reduced to a trickle.
"These records are now breaking with increasing frequency, reflecting the influence of human-induced climate change," said the Met Office's Amy Doherty.
"Particularly notable is how much we've exceeded the previous summer mean temperature record, set just last year."
Met Office meteorologist Mark McCarthy noted "a summer like this would be exceptionally unlikely" in a climate unaffected by human emissions of greenhouse gases.
Climate experts have warned the UK government that Britain is not ready for the consequences of climate change, with homes and public infrastructure not built for warmer, drier summers.
"Climate projections indicate that UK summers will continue to become hotter, a trend already evident in the observations," the Met Office added.