UK sea level rising faster than global average.. and it's speeding up

The UK sea level is rising faster than the global average, presenting a growing threat to British coastal areas, particularly in times of extreme weather events such as storms that often occur in the spring time.

In a new report entitled the State of the UK Climate, the Royal Meteorological Society has for the first time reported on the UK’s rising sea levels which – since 1901 – has risen by about 19.5 cm. Two thirds of this rise has occurred in just over the last three decades.

In fact, over the past 32 years from 1993 to 2024, the UK’s sea level has risen by 13.4cm, higher than the global estimate of 10.6cm – suggesting that UK sea level is rising faster than the global average. According to the researchers behind the report, it’s also accelerating.

The warning has been issued amid the release of this year’s State of UK Climate in which scientists have also confirmed that record-breaking and extreme weather has become increasingly commonplace in the UK, something that is symptomatic – say researchers – of the way in which the UK’s average climate has shifted over the last few decades.

In this new assessment of the UK’s climate, baselines have shifted, records are becoming more frequent, and temperature and rainfall extremes are becoming the norm. And scientists have issued a stark warning that this is all the result of emissions-induced climate change.

The last three years have been in the UK’s top five warmest on record, with 2024 being the fourth warmest year in records dating back to 1884. In 2024 specifically, we saw the UK’s second warmest February , warmest May, fifth warmest December, fifth warmest winder and warmest spring on record. 

Statistics like this are typical of recent years in the UK’s climate records and some of these have already been surpassed in 2025. 

The report shows how the UK has warmed at a rate of approximately 0.25°C per decade since the 1980s, with the most recent decade (2015 to 2024) measuring at 1.24°C warmer than the years between 1961 and 1990.