Several local climate records were set in 2025 despite no ‘headline-grabbing events’ and a generally ‘benign’ weather report for the year.
The Guernsey Met Office has published its annual report for last year.
June saw a record average temperature for the month of 17C, there was only one day on which a gale was recorded during the year, and there were only four days on which ground frost was recorded, wrote senior met officer Adam Heaume, who prepared the report. The latter figures, recorded at the airport, were record lows.
Mr Heaume added that in three of the past five years the temperature had not dropped below freezing point at all.
Overall, summer 2025 was sunnier, drier and warmer than usual, and 10 of the 12 months of the year were warmer than average.
That led to 2025 being the third-warmest year since records began in 1843, with an average temperature of 12.57C. The record is still held by 2022, when the average across the year was 12.82C.
There was less rain than average, at 89.4% – 769.4mm – and more sunshine – 109% of the average, or 2,068.3 hours.
Mr Heaume also reports on the year’s sea temperatures, which he said were influenced by a network of ocean currents with the North Atlantic current being the most notable, fed by the Gulf Stream.
‘This transfer of heat helps to maintain the temperate climate we experience here, when it otherwise would be considerably cooler. This is so important in our understanding of the warming climate, as changing circulation patterns are driven in part by sea temperatures, which ultimately impacts our weather,’ he said.
But sea temperatures have not risen much, with the long-term average increasing by only 0.3C over the last 10 years. That compares with an average global increase of 0.5C since 1982, with warming accelerating in recent decades.
Named storms of 2025
23 January: Eowyn – Maximum wind speed recorded at Guernsey Airport, 44.8mph (39 knots)
26 January: Herminia – Max. wind speed, 51.7mph (45k)
29 January: Ivo – Max. wind speed, 40.2mph (35k)
3/4 October: Amy – Max. wind speed, 56.3mph (49k)
22/23 October: Benjamin – Max wind speed, 56.3mph (49k)