England Kept Breaking Temperature Records in June 2026

Overview

May broke records in England — on 26 May 2026, Central England recorded its warmest May day in 254 years of HadCET measurement, a daily mean of 23.2°C. Only three May days in that entire series have ever exceeded 21°C.

June was record-breaking by huge margins across many temperature records. Late in the month, a heatwave rewrote the books for daily mean, maximum, and minimum — often on consecutive days. On 26 June 2026, HadCET recorded a daily mean of 26.5°C, a daily maximum of 32.8°C, and a daily minimum of 20.1°C — each a new June record, the warmest June night beating the previous 1941 mark by 2.8°C.

The interactive page shows three charts for every June day from 01 June 1772 through 30 June 2026.

Methodology

Data was downloaded directly from the Met Office HadCET dataset. All June readings (days 1–30, years 1772–2026) were extracted for mean, min, and max series using Python. A LOESS smooth was fitted to annual June means for each measure. The interactive charts were built in JavaScript using D3.js, with Delaunay triangulation for nearest-point detection on hover and click.

Findings

• Daily mean: All 4 June days above 24°C in 254 years were in June 2026 (23–26 June: 24.1, 24.3, 25.0, 26.5°C).
• Daily maximum: 4 of the 5 hottest June days on record were in June 2026; the series record is 26 June 2026 at 32.8°C, exceeding the 1976 heatwave peak of 30.3°C.
• Daily minimum: The warmest June night on record was 26 June 2026 at 20.1°C — 2.8°C above the previous record from 22 June 1941 (17.3°C).
• The coldest recorded June daily mean in the series: 19 June 1795 at 7.3°C.

Takeaways

When a 254-year open climate record is updated in near real time, an entire heatwave can be verified and contextualised as it happens — against every previous June day, across mean, max, and min. That is what HadCET and open data enable.