UK Records Hottest Christmas Eve In Decades

The effects of climate change are already being witnessed by countries across the world. The UK has also been seeing its glaring effects in recent years. According to the Met Office, the country has experienced its hottest Christmas Eve in more than two decades.

Heathrow, west London, and Chippenham in Slough recorded temperatures as high as 15.3°C on Sunday, making it the warmest December 24 for the UK since 1931. The warmest Christmas Eve on record was in 1931, when 15.5°C was recorded in Aberdeen and Banff.

"It's been an exceptionally mild couple of days across all of the UK, temperatures have been well above average for the time of year, the maximum for December being 7°C," The Guardian quoted Met Office forecaster Liam Eslick as saying.

Met Office forecaster Dan Stroud believes that there can be a mild decrease in temperatures on Christmas Day.

"We're looking at 13 and 14VC tomorrow; we're probably looking the warmest Christmas Day since 2016, when we actually hit 15.1°C," said Stroud.

The two warmest Christmas days so far were recorded in Edinburgh (1896) and Devon (1920), both with temperatures of 15.6°C. The second-highest was recorded in Dyce in 2011 at 15.1°C.

Earlier this year, London mayor Sadiq Khan warned that the city could see really warm days in the future due to climate change.

The country witnessed its hottest June on record this year, according to the British Meteorological Office. In a statement, the Met Office confirmed that the average mean temperature of 15.8°C in June was the highest in a series since 1884.

Last year was no better for Britain, when the country almost turned into a microwave oven due to record-breaking heat. Social media platforms were flooded with pictures of molten roads and train signals. A few airports had to suspend flights after the excessive heat damaged parts of the runway.

Climate change is causing record-setting temperatures to become more frequent. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that crossing the 1.5°C threshold risks unleashing far more severe climate change impacts, including more frequent and severe droughts, heatwaves, and rainfall.

The United Nations has time and again warned against the dangerous consequences of increasing global temperatures. The organisation now believes that "climate change is out of control".

The planet is already 1.2°C warmer than in pre-industrial times. To limit global warming to 1.5°C, greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and decline by 43 per cent by 2030.

A warming of 2°C is the official limit for the end of the century targeted in the Paris Agreement. It is said that Earth's average temperature will hit the 1.5°C threshold around 2030, a decade earlier than projected.