Met Office reporting 17.6C to 12/08. 

If we get the GH cool down, its game over.  All depends on Hurricane Erin now helping the azores ridge

But not necessarily enough to reduce the August CET from what will be over 18 by early next week to anything lower than the high 16s I suspect. Even a 16.6 for August would put us among the hottest summers, (1995,2006,2022) potentially 4th in the series. But at 18.2 say on 19th, we'd need the last 12 days to average below 15.1 to dip below 17 overall for the month. It would need to be a sustained cooler spell for that- quite possible of course. For the 16.6 whole month the last 12 days would need to average below 14.1 and that is obviously less likely, especially given high SSTs and soil temperatures. What's been surprising about this summer is that both June and August started off cool, but this was reversed so very quickly by repeated or sustained hot spells. 

Latest CET is 18.1C up to the 14th. Plugging in some raw data for the 3 CET stations for the next 10 days takes us to around 17.6C up to the 24th. Adding an arbitrary 16C average across the last 7 days brings us to around 17.2C. 

So 3rd place finish still possible, 1st place unlikely in my opinion. Especially when that last 7 days could be rather cooler than the figure I plugged in. 

Reasoned analysis GezM. Thanks.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2enmn7j3zjo 

Blackberries were seen in London on 22 June, according to the Woodland Trust. By contrast the earliest in 2024 was 4 July in Southampton - but scientists need more information to be certain about the long-term trend.

I've picked one lot of blackberries last week (and made bramble jelly) - I wouldn' t normally expect to do that until 1st or 2nd week of September.

Apple picking at the West Dean orchard had 5 varieties on sale by 1st August this year. The date I've recorded for the first apples on sale - and that for just one variety  - has been 

31/8/12, 23/8/13, 6/8/14, 28/8/15, 20/8/16 ... not recorded ...18/8/22, 4/8/23, 2/8/24, 14/7/25

Last night was the first time in quite a while that I felt chilly in bed.

When it comes for TWO members to review this past summer I’m sure there will be one or two members in Middle England for whom the summer was a damp squib and wondered what the fuss was about.

Like 1976 when it was pleasantly average in Manchester where I was completing the summer term, while wife and daughter were sweltering in Kent (we'd moved early to fit in with the house buying chain)

76 wasn't even that warm in Kent by modern standards. In Brogdale (which held the UK temperature record for a decade) there were only 4 days of 30C or higher, the absolute max was 32.0 and there were several days in the teens mixed in - 13 of them, to be exact, compared with just 6 so far this summer.

2025 has also seen 4 days above 30, an absolute max of 35.8, and currently has a mean max for the whole summer of 24.2 compared with 23.6 in 1976.

Yet people don't bat an eyelid these days, and when you point it out on local newspaper comments people don't believe you, as *they* remember it as an amazing scorcher (which it was, *then*, but not so now!)

This has been mentioned a few times and I think it's important to remember that localities don't necessarily reflect the bigger picture. Some of the more amazing temperatures of the 1976 summer involved E or NE winds and in late June/early July the N Sea would not have warmed sufficiently to mitigate against that for places like N Kent. 

In fact the whole of the super heatwave, if I may be allowed to use such a course term, was dominated by winds with an easterly component. Looking at the CET outcomes for the previous June period, and subsequent July period, it is pretty clear that these two months acquired their high CETs from this heatwave. August was a different matter- more prolonged dry and sunny weather over parched ground allowed persistent mid to high twenties, with only the odd 30. Mayflower Park in Southampton was particularly suited to high temperatures during the heatwave, as was Cheltenham. 

Bear in mind the comment I was replying to this time was about Kent, it's why I mentioned it. There have been some lengthy NE'ly spells this summer, too, but also bear in mind how temperatures down here have risen more than most places in the UK - we've had a 1.5 degree warming from the 61-90 to 91-20 period, so 1976 levels of heat would anyway be more likely here.

It's really quite noticeable how the climate's shifted. 25 years ago I assumed a 1 or 2 degree rise wouldn't really do much - going from 21 to 23 in summer wouldn't be that bad, going from 6 to 8 in winter likewise. In reality it's become far more "spiky", for want of a better word, and I hadn't realised just how hard it'd be to get a cold spell, winter or summer - I'd assumed instead of -2 days in winter every few years we'd still get 0C days, but the reality is that even getting a 3C day is hard work! 

Darren is likely right for N Kent, but the heat that my family (and at weekends, me) were experiencing was on the other side of the Downs, near Maidstone. But I agree that 1976 is increasingly overshadowed (if that's the right word) by the recent sequence of hotter years.

1976, fine, the culmination of a 2 year drought and a 2 week heatwave which if it happened today would give us day after day of mid-high 30s. 

But 1995: that sheer number of 30C days, the consistency of hot and dry weather from late June to late August, and above all the record breaking July-August combination. Only 2022 gives us a similar level of July-August double hit.

Only a very chilly first half of June drags it down from absolutely trouncing 1976 on all fronts. 

Yes def the most exceptional and consistent summer of my lifetime.  

Provisional to 22/08, so it looks like we'll probably just fall short.

An amazing photo finish!

The UK  Met Office is reporting a Central England Temperature (CET) of 17.7°C for August. The TWO CET analyser suggests the meteorological summer 2025 is tied with 1976 at the top of the table, which dates back to 1659. 

That said, although our CET database uses data from the UK Met Office, it may not include the latest revisions, so it's still possible that 2025 could end up slightly above or below 1976.

What do we think of this BBC article today, that states 1976 isn't even in the top 5 now??

https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/c1kz18d3wjro 

They're not using the CET for that statement, so it makes sense!

1976: Jun: 23.9, Jul: 24.4, Aug: 22.4, Overall: 23.5

2015: Jun: 24.5, Jul: 23.4, Aug: 23.0, Overall: 23.9

There were 4 days of 30C or more in both 1976 and 2025, with an absolute max of 32.0 in 1976 and 35.8 in 2025.

There were 79 days of 20C or more in 1976, the longest run being 30 days. In 2015 there were 84 days and the longest run was 43 days.

Aside from the mean high in July, most other metrics show 2025 handily beating 1976. And yet, as I've said before, nobody bats an eyelid - they still waffle on about 1976 as if it was the warmest summer ever!

As Darren says, that's for the UK as a whole. The data I posted is for the CET zone.

Courtesy of Kevin Bradshaw's (aka Mr Data, Summer 1995) formula for the Manchester Summer Index, I have done the London Summer Index for this summer just finished using Weatheronline data for London Heathrow (03772)

https://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weather/maps/city?WMO=03772&CONT=ukuk&LAND=UK&ART=SON&LEVEL=150 

This summer comes out 13th in the league table going back to 1900

1976 363

1995 338

2022 336

2018 331

1989 328

1911 328

2003 320

1975 317

1949 313

1983 313

1996 312

1933 311

2025 310

You might recall the formula uses the average daily max temp, the total of sun hours and the number of rain days to build up a single value as shown via 10*[av (maxT) + (sun hours/67) - (rain days/8)]

This years average maxT for London Heathrow put it 3rd in the table behind 2022 and 1976 resp but the sun hours (56th) and the rain days (26th) were way off the pace for a higher placing. 

(Note that this for London data not UK or CET Region where 2025 came or tied first place)

I've read elsewhere that Kevin has quoted the final 2025 Manchester summer index as 240

This is well below the 1976 and 1995 values of 301 and 298 

Seems 2025 has come out, amazingly, top for both UK and CET (by a whisker) even if not for the Manchester area. The unpredictability of the weather here is one reason why we shouldn't talk 'front loaded' in June, just because June is a hot one.