LONDON: Last year was UK ’s warmest year on record, according to figures from the Met Office released on Monday.

The Met Office revealed that 2014 was the hottest for the UK in records dating back to 1910.

The average temperature for the year was 9.9C, some 1.1 C above the long term average, and making it warmer than the previous record year of 2006 (9.7 °C).

It was also the fourth wettest year in records dating back to 1910, the Met Office said.

In a worrying revelation, the latest figures mean that eight of the UK’s top 10 warmest years have occurred since 2002.

It was also the warmest year on record in the Central England Temperature series , which dates back to 1659 and is the world's longest running instrumental temperature series.

Looking in more detail across the UK, it was the warmest year on record for all countries and regions apart from Northern Ireland - which had its joint third warmest year behind 2007 and 2006.

Met Office said “It was also marginally the warmest year on record in the CET series from 1659 with a mean temperature of 10.93 °C narrowly ahead of the previous record of 10.87 °C set in 2006. The number of air frosts for the UK was also provisionally lowest in a series from 1961”.

This year's provisional rainfall total of 1297.1 mm is the fourth highest total on record for the UK in the series dating back to 1910, meaning five of the UK's top six wettest years have happened since 2000.

It was also within the 20 wettest years in the England and Wales Precipitation series which dates back to 1766. A large contribution to the high annual rainfall total came from very wet weather in January and February. May, October and November were also wetter than average and August was especially wet across Northern Scotland.

Most other months were drier than average in most areas, and September was the driest in the series from 1910 for the UK.

Responding to the latest publication, Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said “The new record set by 2014 is part of a pattern, with the UK’s eight hottest years all having occurred from 2000 onwards. The UK also last year experienced its fourth wettest year on record, and it means that five of the six rainiest years have occurred from 2000 onwards. We know from basic physics that as the atmosphere warms it holds more water, leading to heavier rainfall”.

“This is clear evidence of the impact of man-made climate change on the UK. However, the latest assessment by the independent Committee on Climate Change shows that the UK public is largely unaware of how climate change is affecting their exposure and vulnerability to extreme weather events”.