The UK has recorded its sunniest yr ever – and we’re solely midway by way of December.
However a bumper spring and summer season for sunshine have already put 2025 firmly within the prime spot for sunshine hours throughout the UK, based on provisional Met Workplace statistics.
The sunny spells have been pushed by frequent intervals of excessive strain that lowered clouds and locked in sunny skies for a lot of elements of the nation.
Although it could be arduous to consider, Britain’s climate has usually been getting sunnier over the previous few many years – however scientists cannot but say why.
This yr, up till 15 December, the nation clocked up 1,622 hours of sunshine, beating the earlier sunniest yr of 2003.
All that sunshine drove a document yr for solar energy, by an enormous margin.
Picture:
2025 was the UK’s sunniest yr on document
Met Workplace senior scientist Mike Kendon mentioned: “Spring was exceptional, and many will remember the long spells of days with largely unbroken sunshine.”
To this point this yr, solely the months of February and October recorded below-average sunshine hours, he added.
However the bounties weren’t shared equally throughout the nations.
England loved its sunniest yr ever. However 2025 has doubtless not even made the highest 10 for Northern Eire, although it was above common.
Scotland is on the right track for its second-sunniest yr, and Wales its sixth, albeit with two weeks nonetheless to go.
Why is the UK getting sunnier?
The UK has broadly been getting sunnier for the reason that Nineteen Eighties, however the reason for the pattern stays a thriller.
It may “simply be down to natural variability”, the Met Workplace mentioned, that means it may effectively change in future.
Or it could be defined by a “reduction in particulates [known as aerosols] over the UK, partly due to clean air laws introduced to combat acid rain”, mentioned Edward Gryspeerdt, affiliate professor in atmospheric physics, Imperial School London.
Aerosols trigger clouds to mirror much less mild, so fewer of them permits extra sunshine all the way down to Earth.
There may be “no definitive evidence” that local weather change is impacting sunshine ranges, based on the Met Workplace.
Photo voltaic vitality within the limelight
All that sunshine, mixed with the construct out of extra photo voltaic farms and panels on roofs, meant solar energy soared to document ranges in 2025.
By November, photo voltaic had already generated 18Twh of electrical energy, excess of the 14Twh by the top of December final yr.
John Marsham, professor of atmospheric science at Leeds College, mentioned photo voltaic vitality was “helping to lower prices” of electrical energy by breaking the hyperlink with gasoline costs.
The Ember thinktank additionally discovered simply 2% of days in a typical yr have each low wind and low sunshine, that means 98% of the time it’s both windy or sunny.
Ember analyst Frankie Mayo mentioned: “At a national scale, solar power pairs well with wind farms which generate more in winter, when it’s less sunny.”
Nevertheless, giant photo voltaic farms have proved unpopular in some native communities for his or her affect on the panorama, equivalent to in Lincolnshire, the place a number of giant websites not too long ago got the go-ahead.
Craig Dyke from the UK’s vitality system operator NESO mentioned: “It’s hard to believe how far Britain has come over the past quarter of a century, with renewables now producing around 60% of our electricity – up from just 3% in the year 2000.”
