11 charts that explain the big changes to Britain's weather

Extreme temperatures are becoming more common in the UK, according to a new report by the Met Office that described 2022 as a record-breaking year for weather.

Climate scientists warn that last year's hot, dry summer — which saw 40C temperatures recorded for the first time, and was accompanied by wildfires — is a “sign of things to come”.

Last year was the hottest not only on Met Office records that began in 1884, but also on the Central England Temperature record – the longest-running series in the world which stretches back to 1659.

Mike Kendon, climate scientist and lead author of the new State Of The UK Climate 2022 report, described the 40C mark as "a real moment of climate history".

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Based on the current emissions trajectory, he says last year would be considered cool by the standards of 2100 as the nation experiences hotter and drier summers.

The Met Office report, published in the International Journal of Climatology, reveals how the nation's levels of snow, rain, and sea levels have shifted over the decades, giving a complete picture of how its seasons are changing.

Here, Yahoo News highlights the study's most important findings and explains what it means for life in Britain.

Average temperature

To put last year's temperatures into a longer-term perspective, these two charts show just how much hotter it was on compared to two previous time periods.

These are anomaly maps, which show much how much the temperature of a given day or year has deviated from the long-term mean of a certain time period.

The UK mean (average) temperature for 2022 was 10C, which is 0.9C above the long-term average of 1991-2020, and 1.7°C above the 1961–1990 baseline.

Scientists expect this pattern to continue, with the potential for more wildfires and heatwaves putting people's health at risk and crops in greater danger of failing.

Rainfall

Last summer saw several local authorities in England declare hosepipe bans, as water levels in reservoirs reached dangerously low levels in some areas.

But still there's a bit of a mixed picture. While 2022 saw the UK's driest summer since 1995, it also saw the UK's eighth wettest February on record.

The year saw a notably January, March, April, July and August, and according to the Met Office rainfall throughout the year was 94% of the 1991–2020 average.

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The most recent decade (2013–2022) has been on average as wet as 1991–2020, and 8% wetter than 1961–1990 for the UK overall.

For 2013–2022 UK winters have been 10% wetter than 1991–2020 and 25% wetter than 1961–1990, with much smaller changes for spring, summer and autumn overall.

In other words, overall conditions in the UK appear to be getting warmer and wetter as time goes on, with five of the 10 wettest years for the UK since 1836 occurring in the 21st century.

Despite this overall pattern, these two maps show just how dry the July of 2022 was, particularly for the South East. There, many areas saw just 10% of the 1991-2020 average.

Meanwhile the two maps below show the contrast between the UK's incredibly dry summer and wet autumn months.

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Parts of East England saw just 30% of the average rainfall of the past 30 years during summer 2022, while in the autumn, parts of the South East saw as much as 170%.

Sea levels

Since the 1900s, the sea level around the UK has risen by about 18.5cm, compared to 11.4cm over the past 30 years.

The rate in which the sea level is rising is also increasing, from 1.5 ± 0.1 mm per year since the 1900s to 3.8 ± 0.9 mm per year between 1993-2022.

Rising sea levels can lead to an increase in coastal erosion, as waves are able to extend further up cliffs and beaches, according to the LSE's Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

It poses a threat to several coastal towns and villages in the UK, with homes at risk of being washed away as water chips away at the shore - meanwhile some regions are at risk of increased flooding.

Sunshine

The Met Office says 2022 was the seventh sunniest year in the UK from 1910, with 110% of the 1991–2020 average.

England had its equal-sunniest year on record - tied with 2003 - while southern England had its sunniest year on record by margin of 14 hours.

The most recent decade of 2013–2022 has been 3% sunnier than 1991–2020, and 9% sunnier than 1961–1990 with slightly larger increases across England compared to the other home nations.

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What wider implications could this have for weather in Britain? The University of California, Berkley, explains: "The more sunlight a surface absorbs, the warmer it gets, and the more energy it re-radiates as heat.

"This re-radiated heat is then absorbed and re-radiated by greenhouse gases and clouds, and warm the atmosphere through the greenhouse effect."

The Met Office says that hotter weather may make growing some crops easier - grapes used for sparkling wine for example - although more droughts in the summer may make life considerably more difficult for growers.

Hotter weather may allow us to grow new crops, while conditions may no longer be suitable for ones we currently grow.