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This year will be the warmest year on record for the UK, according to the Met Office.

The annual average temperature across Britain exceeded the previous high set in 2014, when the average was 9.88C, from the national forecaster show. The final figure will be confirmed when the year is over.

All four seasons in 2022 have fallen in the top ten warmest in a national series that began in 1884. This year also marks the warmest on record in a 364-year central England dataset from 1659, the world’s longest instrumental record of temperature, the Met Office said.

“While many will remember the summer’s extreme heat, what has been noteworthy this year has been the relatively consistent heat through the year, with every month except December being warmer than average,” said Mark McCarthy, head of the Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre.

Despite the cold spell in early December, these periods of chillier weather have generally become less frequent and less severe as the climate warms, McCarthy said.

The Met Office’s figures underline a trend across Europe and follow what was the region’s hottest summer, an event that likely resulted in more than 20,000 excess deaths in France, Germany, Spain and Britain, according to official data.

“The warm year is in line with the genuine impacts we expect as a result of human-induced climate change,” McCarthy said.

Photograph: This aerial view shows the low water level in the Pontsticill Reservoir during a heat wave on Aug. 11, 2022 near Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. Photo credit: Carl Court/Getty Images Europe

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