It's no secret that June 2026 was an absolute scorcher for much of Europe, as the continent was hit by a heat dome heatwave that caused temperatures to skyrocket and set all-time peaks across many different countries and regions.
One example was the UK, who experienced a new all-time temperature peak in the month of June, when the mercury topped out at 37.3°C, which was almost 2°C warmer than the prior record held jointly since 1976 and 1957.
Building on this, the Met Office has now revealed that June 2026 was the warmest on record for England, with it topping out as the second warmest on record for the wider UK and Wales region. This is based on data registered since 1884.
According to the data, the mean temperature reached 17.1°C in England, which beats 2025's record and sits at almost 3°C above the long-term average. As for the wider UK and Wales, the record fell short to June of 2023, while Scotland and Northern Ireland clocked their fourth-warmest June temperature since 1884.
This is all on top of above average rainfall and far above average sunshine duration, even despite the first half of June being somewhat unseasonably cool, a situation that brought down the mean temperature for the entire month quite considerably.
The question now? What will July bring...?