We recreated the legendary heatwave summer of 1976 in today’s climate – here’s what we found

By Ed Hawkins, Professor of Climate Science, University of Reading
Hayley J. Fowler, Professor of Climate Change Impacts, Newcastle University

The summer of 1976 was an extraordinary heatwave for its time. With 15 consecutive days of temperatures over 32°C, it was an unprecedented length for a UK heatwave, coming at the end of a year-long drought. This led to severe water shortages and frequent wildfires, followed by flash floods.

But the climate has substantially changed since 1976. Global temperatures have risen by about 1°C since then and summer 2025 was hotter than 1976 for the UK, with three shorter heatwaves rather than one long one.…

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