2014 on track to be UK's warmest year ever

Unless temperatures plunge in the next few weeks, 2014 will be the UK's warmest year since records began almost 250 years ago, researchers say.

Each month between January and November has been above the average recorded in the Central England Temperature Record, which dates back to 1772. Now, meteorologists believe that there is a 75 per cent chance that 2014 will go down as Britain’s hottest ever year.

Unofficial figures suggest that the average temperature for 2014 so far has been 9.9C. That puts it on course to set a new record, unless December's average comes in 2.5C below the norm, the Daily Mirror reports. However, the Met Office is currently predicting a slightly warmer than average month.

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Bob Ward, from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said: "This is the warmest year since records began by a considerable margin. It would be very difficult for 2014 to be displaced as the warmest year."

Meteorologists believe that global warming is at least partly to blame for the higher temperatures, the BBC says.

According to the BBC's environment analyst Roger Harrabin, 2014 has been a "year of weird weather".

"A record wet winter with floods to match. Then the driest ever September, followed by the Halloween heat – the warmest such day on record," Harrabin said.

Official figures on global and UK temperatures are due to be published by the Met Office later.