LONDON, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- The summer of 2025 is officially confirmed as the warmest summer on record for Britain, according to provisional statistics from Britain's Met Office released on Monday.

From June 1 to Aug. 31, Britain's mean temperature stood at 16.10 degrees Celsius, 1.51 degrees above the long-term meteorological average and well above the current record of 15.76 degrees set in 2018.

Met Office scientist Emily Carlisle explained that this persistent warmth is driven by a combination of factors, including the domination of high-pressure systems, unusually warm seas around the country, and the dry spring soils. These conditions have created an environment where heat builds quickly and lingers, with both maximum and minimum temperatures considerably above average.

The five hottest summers on record have now occurred since 2000, a clear signal of global warming.

Met Office climate scientists noted that, without human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, a summer as hot as 2025 would be expected only once in about 340 years, whereas under current conditions, such extreme heat is likely to occur roughly once every five years, making it about 70 times more probable than in a natural climate. ■