The UK enjoyed the warmest year on record last year

Last year was the UK’s warmest on record, the Met Office said.

Provisional figures released by the country’s official weather forecasters show the mean temperature for 2014 beat the previous record by 0.2C and was 1.1C above the long-term average.

Last year was also the fourth wettest since 1910.

The Met Office said the UK’s mean temperature for the year was 9.9C, compared to the previous high in 2006 of 9.7C. Eight of the UK’s top ten warmest years have happened since 2002.

A spokesperson said: “Looking in more detail across the UK, it was the warmest year on record for all countries and regions apart from Northern Ireland, which had its joint third warmest year behind 2007 and 2006.

“Despite the record-breaking warmth, no months through the year saw records for temperature – instead each month was consistently warm, with only August seeing below-average temperatures.”

It was also the warmest year on record in the Central England Temperature series from 1659 with a mean temperature of 10.93C, narrowly ahead of the previous record of 10.87C set in 2006.

Last year’s provisional rainfall total of 1297.1 mm is the fourth-highest total on record for the UK since 1910, meaning five of the UK’s top six wettest years have happened since 2000.

The spokesperson said: “A large contribution to the high annual rainfall total came from very wet weather in January and February. May, October and November were also wetter than average and August was especially wet across Northern Scotland.

“Most other months were drier than average in most areas, and September was the driest in the series from 1910 for the UK.

“The most notable weather events of the year were the winter storms of January and February which brought damaging winds, inland and coastal flooding.

“In comparison, the rest of the year was relatively quiet. On 10 August ex-hurricane Bertha brought strong winds, heavy rain and flooding to north-east Scotland and a major winter storm affected the North of the UK in early December – notable but not exceptional for the time of year.

“Summer 2014 brought some fine weather, particularly in June and July. There were no major heat-waves but several instances of torrential summer downpours causing localised flash-flooding, for example across parts of England on 19 to 20 July.”

More details can be found on the Met Office’s climate pages.