By Yelyzaveta Basharova and Jack Cranmer

The United Kingdom has experienced the hottest winter since records began. The average temperature for England was 7.5C, an average of 6.9C in Wales and around 4C in Scotland with temperatures peaking at 7C, according to The Met Office.

These provisional statistics are in line with longer-term predictions from climate monitoring organisations. They have pointed to warmer, wetter winters due to climate change. However, this situation is not just limited to our island with the EU’s climate service announcing that February 2024 is the world’s warmest in modern times.

The recent temperatures in Scotland in the previous February averaged around 3.4C from 2015 until 2023. Showing a rise this year where the warmest temperature in the whole country was recorded. The Highland village of Kinlochewe hit the heights of 19.6C over the winter period, meaning the village had a higher temperature than even the Spanish holiday island of Ibiza. The weather has also been wetter this winter, with meteorologist Annie Shuttleworth confirming with BBC News: “After December and January we’d already had 90 per cent of the winter rainfall. You’d expect to be close to 65% by the end of January.”

Some figures are showing that this could be the eighth wettest winter in the country since records began, with six storms over the winter adding to the overall wetness.

There is concern with the lack of frost due to the increased temperatures this year, with a 1 degree C increase across the world over the last 50 years equivalent to three fewer weeks of frost per year.

This could have a serious impact on the hygiene of the food we eat as well as having an impact on their growth cycles which could lead to less fresh British fruit on our supermarket shelves.

Whilst this may not affect the everyday Briton’s life at present, these changes will have a serious impact further down the line if actions aren’t taken worldwide to improve the climate and lessen the damage being done. The Royal Botanic Gardens are preparing for the worst with Tom Freeth, Head of Plant Records saying: “I’ve performed a complete assessment on all of our big old plants, all of our woody plants. We know which are vulnerable in certain scenarios and which ones we’ve got that might be resilient.

“So, we can make a plan. If we plant something tomorrow, if we have done our job, it will be alive in 2100.”

Britain experiences Warmest February on record