State of the UK Climate in 2024

The State of the UK Climate in 2024 report has just been published, providing a summary of the weather in 2024 as well as the latest climate trends. The report found that the UK is warming, extremes are increasing, sea level rise is accelerating and winters are getting wetter. But what does this mean for Nature? To answer the question, the report also includes a section on phenology based on observations from the Nature’s Calendar project.

Phenology

The report investigated a subset of the many spring events included in the Nature’s Calendar project including: the blooming of four flowers, the leafing of four trees, blackbird nesting, frogspawn laying and the emergence of two butterflies.

Key findings

• Twelve out of the 13 spring events investigated were earlier than average.
• 2024 was the earliest year on record (1999-2024) for both frogspawn laying and blackbird nesting.
• Leaf-on season (the period between first leaf and bare tree) was 7 days earlier than average due to earlier leafing in the spring.
• When looking at trends over the 1999-2024 period, hazel flowering showed a significant advance.
• The warm weather, particularly in February, will have contributed the earliness in 2024.

Thank you

Thank you to all our volunteers who submitted observations to the Nature’s Calendar project in 2024. This analysis would not have been possible without you . You’re acknowledged in the report on page 55! 

The report is published as a special issue of the International Journal of Climatology, which is the Royal Meteorological Society journal of climate science. Read the full report.