The BBC has published an interactive postcode lookup showing how hot and dry summer 2026 was across the UK. The UK recorded its hottest summer on record, with the maximum daily temperature averaging 21.3C, 2.4C above the 1991-2020 summer average. Rainfall averaged 195mm nationwide, 23% below the 1991-2020 summer norm, and droughts were declared across much of the country while only north-western Scotland saw more rain than usual. The tool uses the Met Office Hadley Centre's HadUK Grid dataset, which provides estimates on a 1km by 1km grid and averages neighbouring cells to represent local conditions. Data for 2026 are provisional because fewer observations have been incorporated so far, and the interactive requires a modern browser with JavaScript to view local results. Methodology support is credited to Dan Hollis, Amy Doherty and Oli Claydon at the UK Met Office Hadley Centre.
