UK records warmest spring on record and driest in 50 years as climate change bites

EXPERTS SOUND WARNING AS EXTREME CONDITIONS BECOMING MORE FREQUENT

- By EMILY BEAMENT & ALAN JONES

THE UK has recorded its warmest spring on record and its driest in more than 50 years, provisional Met Office figures reveal.

The three months from March to May were also the sunniest spring on record for the UK, the figures show.

The news comes after north-west England became the first region in the country to declare a drought following the exceptionally dry spring, farmers struggled to grow crops and millions of households were warned they could face hosepipe bans this summer without sustained rainfall.

And environmental campaigners said the latest data was a "stark warning" that climate change was no longer a distant threat, but one which needed immediate action.

Spring temperatures surpassed the long-term average by 1.4C and beat the previous warmest spring last year in records dating back to 1884.

The Met Office said that eight of the 10 warmest springs on record had occurred since 2000 and the three warmest had been since 2017, in a sign of the changing climate.

And the organisation warned that seas around the UK had experienced a marine heatwave, as sea surface temperatures reached record highs for April and May and with "unprecedented conditions" of as much as 4C warmer than usual in some areas.