Heatwaves in the UK are lasting twice as long as they did 50 years ago, a report from the Met Office focusing on weather extremes has revealed.
The report also found that warm spells and tropical nights are on the rise in the UK as the climate changes.
The duration of warm spells, when temperatures are well above average for the time of year, has more than doubled between the periods 1961 to 1990 and 2008 to 2017.
Since 1990 the average longest warm spell has gone from 5.3 days to 13.2 days. This year was even longer, at 17 days.
Scorching summer days are getting hotter, with the hottest day of each year in the most recent decade on average 0.8C warmer than each year’s hottest days in the period 1961-1990.
And the chilliest extremes of the year are not quite as biting as they were in the past, with the lowest temperature of the year 1.7C milder in the last decade than it was in the three decades up to 1990.
Tropical nights – where minimum temperatures do not fall below 20C (68F) – are still rare in the UK, and are largely confined to southern England.
But they are being included in the report on temperature and rainfall extremes, as they are likely to become more common in the future as climate change becomes more pronounced.
The data, which tracks trends since the 1960s, shows that while the 1976 heatwave is one of the most significant heatwaves for the UK, tropical nights were almost unheard of prior to 1995.
Since then, they have happened in London, Kent, the Isle of Wight, and occasionally in Wales and the north east.
Dr Mark McCarthy, head of the Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre which produced the report, said: “Minimum overnight temperatures of over 20C in the UK are rare currently and even during this summer this threshold was only exceeded on a few occasions.
“However, with projections in climate suggesting warmer temperatures, it is useful to have this metric in place, so that future changes can be monitored.”
Heavy rainfall is also on the increase, with extremely wet days up 17% in the period 2008-2017, compared to 1961-1990, the report showed.
McCarthy said: “Monthly, seasonal and annual climate data provide a valuable record of the changing climate in the UK.
“However, these average figures have a tendency to mask extreme weather and climate events.”
The new report focuses on measures which record weather extremes to also show how the climate is changing, he said.