theSIGNAL SCIENCE
16 July 2026
"The climate is an angry beast, and we are poking it with sticks."
NEWSBUSINESSTECHNOLOGYWORLDSCIENCECULTUREENVIRONMENTSPORT
Science

Britain's 20th-Century Climate Has Simply Vanished

The Met Office says the UK's familiar climate baseline is gone, and what replaced it is already reshaping life from London to Lancashire.

Picture a summer night in London in 1975. It is warm, but you sleep. Now picture the same city in 2024: the thermometer refuses to drop, the air sits heavy, and somewhere in a hospital a doctor is treating a patient for heat exhaustion. That shift is not anecdote — it is data.

The number of days above 30°C and nights above 18°C in Greater London has more than quadrupled between the baseline period of 1961–1990 and the decade 2016–2025. The Met Office has put a name to what many people have quietly suspected: the climate that Britain knew throughout the twentieth century no longer exists. The evidence comes from the Met Office's latest state-of-the-climate report, which confirmed that 2025 was the warmest year in UK records stretching all the way back to 1884. The decade 2016–2025 was, on average, 1.

33°C warmer than the 1961–1990 baseline — a figure that sounds modest until you consider what it does to extremes. The hottest day of the year in southern England is now typically 4.5°C warmer than it was in that same baseline period. "We are right now living in a time of historic and unprecedented change," said Mike Kendon, a climate information scientist at the Met Office.

He described the warming as moving "north and uphill," meaning areas like the Vale of York and Lancashire now experience temperatures that once belonged only to Greater London. What does that mean for people?

Photo: Zarif Ali / Unsplash
Amber heat alerts were issued across England this summer as temperatures repeatedly broke records.
Discuss
  • What does it mean to say a climate 'no longer exists' — can a climate truly disappear?
  • Why might a 1.33°C average rise cause a much larger jump in extreme temperatures?
  • Should governments be legally required to redesign hospitals and schools for heat resilience?
Science

America Can't Agree on Clocks

On a recent vote of 308–117, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent. No more twice-yearly clock changes — in theory. But here is the strange part. Sixty-four percent of Americans want to abolish the changes, yet they cannot agree on what comes next. Sleep scientists prefer permanent standard time; brighter mornings, they argue, protect your heart. The Senate remains skeptical.…
  • Should governments let citizens vote directly on keeping or abolishing clock changes?
∞
We are right now living in a time of historic and unprecedented change, and in terms of temperature, on annual, seasonal, monthly and daily timescales, this evidence shows the climate of the 20th Century has now gone.
Mike Kendon, Climate Information Scientist, Met Office
Science

Canada's Wildfires Choke Cities Across Two Nations

Picture this: a freight train racing through a tunnel of fire in northern Ontario, its crew radioing for emergency rescue. That actually happened this week near Armstrong — and all workers were safely saved. Over 838 wildfires are currently burning across Canada. The remote Namaygoosisagagun First Nation community was "devastated," according to Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige, with homes and buildings severely damaged by a fast-moving blaze. Toronto woke to a yellow sky and ranked as the world's worst city for air quality, overtaking Delhi, Kinshasa, and Dubai.…
  • Should major outdoor sporting events be cancelled when wildfire smoke poses health risks?
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theSIGNAL IN THE LAB
1VOCABULARY
unprecedentedbaseline
quadrupledheat exhaustionabolish
devastateddrifting
2GRAMMAR FOCUS
Cleft sentences — It was X that / What I need is
Cleft sentences split one idea into two clauses to add emphasis. 'It was + focus + that/who' highlights a specific element, while 'What + clause + is/was' emphasises a noun or idea.
It was · What · that · who · is · was · which
  1. the decade 2016–2025 ___ saw the most dramatic warming in British records.
  2. shocked many residents ___ the speed at which Canada's wildfires spread toward communities.
  3. the Met Office confirmed ___ 2025 was the warmest year since records began in 1884.
  4. worries sleep scientists most ___ the proposal to make daylight saving time permanent.
  5. in northern Ontario ___ a freight train crew had to radio for emergency rescue.
  6. the smoke drifting south from Canada ___ could disrupt the World Cup final on Sunday.
3DEPENDENT PREPOSITIONS
Complete each phrase with the correct preposition. All from today's articles.
  1. The smoke from Canadian wildfires could hang ___ New Jersey's stadium during the World Cup final.
  2. Warming is described as moving 'north and uphill,' meaning temperatures that once belonged ___ Greater London.
  3. Over 2,700 deaths may have been linked ___ heat during exceptionally hot spells.
  4. The Namaygoosisagagun community was devastated ___ a fast-moving blaze.
  5. Sleep scientists argue that brighter mornings are better ___ your heart.
4CRITICAL THINKING
All three stories involve institutions — governments, health services, sports bodies — struggling to respond to crises that were, to varying degrees, predictable. To what extent is slow institutional response a failure of knowledge, a failure of political will, or simply a structural feature of how democracies operate?
5CREATIVE · HEADLINES
Write a headline for the top story in each of the following styles. One line each, no explanation:
  • TABLOID NEWSPAPER
  • LUXURY MAGAZINE
  • ACTIVIST BLOG
6WRITING
A Met Office scientist says warming is moving 'north and uphill' — choose one community, rural or urban, that would be affected by this shift and write a short paragraph describing the concrete, day-to-day changes its residents might notice within a single decade.
7DEGREES OF EXTREMITY
Complete each ladder from mild to strong.
  • warm→→
  • uncomfortable→→
  • concerned→→
  • unusual→→
  • smoky→→
  • damaged→→
8SPEAKING
  1. Who bears more responsibility for heat deaths — governments or individuals?
  2. Could permanent daylight saving time ever unite sleep scientists and politicians?
  3. What should railway companies do when tracks run through wildfire zones?
  4. Does renaming a place's climate change how its residents experience it?