Britain's warmest years in past 100 years have all been in 21st century: Met Office

LONDON, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Statistics by weather experts at Britain's Met Office show 2017 will be the fifth warmest year in the UK since records began in 1910.

Average temperatures show 2017 will be warmer than both 2015 and 2016, but cooler than 2014, 2006, 2011, and 2007. All of the nine warmest years since 1910 have occurred since 2000, said the Met in its end-of-year weather report published Friday.

The warmest year in the UK since 1910 was in 2014 when the mean temperature was 9.91 degrees celsius. Provisional figures for 2017 suggest the mean British temperature will be 9.56 degrees celsius.

The mean temperature for England was 10.42 degrees celcius, making it nominally the fourth warmest year since 1910. The mean temperature for Wales in 2017 was 9.91 degrees celcius.

During the year 1,527 hours of sunshine was recorded in England, 1,490 hours in Scotland, 1,340 in Wales and 1,118 in Northern Ireland.

Dr Mark McCarthy, manager of the Met Office's National Climate Information Center, said: "Although the year is likely to be the fifth warmest in the UK since 1910, many people will probably remember the year for some of its more notable weather events.

"Events like ex-hurricane Ophelia, which in October brought high winds and disruption to parts of Ireland and the UK, and memorably for some drew up dust from the Sahara and smoke from the wildfires in Iberia, giving us the appearance of sunset at midday."

The Met Office said when considered as a whole, 2017 has been a rather average year for rainfall. Across the UK there was an average of 1,106.8mm of rain, which is 95.9 percent of rainfall when compared to the long-term average. All of the UK regions received below average rainfall, with Scotland being the driest relative to average. In Scotland only 94.9 percent of rainfall fell when compared with the long-term average. Wales, with 98.6 percent of long-term average rainfall, was the wettest relative to average.

Although much of the early part of December was cold with significant snowfall in some areas and numerous frosts in most areas, the mean UK temperature for the month is likely to be 0.4 degree celcius above the 1981-2010 long-term average.

Tim Legg, of the Met Office' National Climate Information Center, added: "Many places have had a rather dry month, especially eastern areas from Lincolnshire to Aberdeenshire. Much of the rainfall has fallen during mid-month and the final week of the month." Enditem