Just how hot and dry was your summer? – UK postcode lookup

An interactive postcode lookup shows how summer 2026 unfolded across the UK: it was the hottest on record, with an average daily maximum of 21.3°C - 2.4°C above the 1991-2020 baseline - and a countrywide rainfall total around 195mm, about 23% below the 30‑year average. Repeated heatwaves and persistent high‑pressure systems left much of England and Wales particularly hot and dry, prompting drought declarations in many areas, while north‑west Scotland saw above‑normal summer rain. The Met Office estimates human‑caused climate change made this season roughly 130 times more likely; scientists warn that rising temperatures accelerate soil and vegetation drying and that UK summers are projected to become drier on average even as extreme rain events may intensify.

The data come from the Met Office Hadley Centre’s HadUK Grid, a 1km-by-1km gridded dataset that combines station observations with adjustments for altitude, terrain and distance from the coast to fill gaps. Each postcode is matched to its nearest grid cell and reported as the mean of that cell plus surrounding cells (typically representing a 5km square, up to 7km in complex coastal areas). Temperature values are averages of daily maxima/minima across those cells, rainfall is the summed average, and heatwave days are counted using Met Office thresholds for the grid‑cell centre. The 2026 figures are provisional pending lagged observations; the historical reference period is 1991-2020.